MADRID – A 20-year-old Palestinian woman, reportedly in “severe physical deterioration,” passed away after being moved to Italy for medical care, as confirmed by the hospital on Saturday.
The woman was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late Wednesday and succumbed on Friday. She had been transported from the Gaza Strip as part of a humanitarian effort and arrived with a “very complex and compromised clinical condition,” according to the hospital’s statement.
She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it said in a statement.
Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said.
The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reported that almost 120 individuals from Gaza — including 31 patients and their families — had been flown to Rome, Milan, and Pisa via three different flights.
In a post on X, Tajani said that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest.
The hospital did not confirm if the woman was suffering from malnutrition but noted her condition as “severe physical deterioration.”
Eugenio Giani, leader of the Tuscan region, expressed his condolences Saturday for the woman’s death.
Earlier this week, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric indicated that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza had reached a peak since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The United Nations reports that nearly 12,000 children under the age of 5 were suffering from acute malnutrition in July — with more than 2,500 cases classified as severe, the most critical stage. The World Health Organization suggests these figures are likely underestimated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump responded to Netanyahu’s claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people. “I don’t know,” Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader’s comment. “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”
Over the past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May.
That was after 2.5 months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war.
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