Twelve patients from Gaza to arrive in Belgium as part of EU deal

The trip is the second of its kind to take place this week.

Transcript

00:00From Monday, Belgium will be welcoming four children from Gaza for medical treatment.

00:08Three of the young patients, aged between six and ten, need treatment for cancer.

00:13They are accompanied on their journey by their families.

00:17In total, the Belgian authorities are welcoming 12 people as part of this medical evacuation mission,

00:25which began thousands of kilometers away.

00:30These patients have been evacuated through PCRF prior to the Rafah closure to Egypt,

00:37used it as a central hub, and then pulled from there to Belgium.

00:42And obviously, as you can tell, the trip is not easy.

00:45These are patients that have lost everything in home.

00:47They have lost their homes, they have lost loved ones,

00:51and so we had to make sure that they've already been displaced once,

00:55so that they feel comfortable as we're taking them to another location.

01:00While Belgium is treating these children, the transport was carried out by a Slovakian medical aircraft.

01:06This is the second mission of its kind undertaken by the European Union,

01:09the World Health Organization, Egypt, and the NGO.

01:14A few days ago, Spain welcomed 16 young patients, again accompanied by family members.

01:22Each country, again, picks based off the criteria that they believe is best for the way that they can help those patients.

01:29And so Spain has had patients that had orthopedic problems, chronic conditions, cardiac problems.

01:36Belgium's focus was primarily more onto the oncology-like patients.

01:42These patients will remain in Europe for the duration of their treatment and until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

01:49Experts remain hopeful that other European Union countries will open their doors to children in need.