Woman evacuated from Gaza to Italy dies in hospital days after arrival

A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a “state of severe physical deterioration” has died after being transferred to Italy for treatment, the hospital says.

The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from the Gaza Strip as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a “with a very complex, compromised clinical picture,” according to the hospital.

She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it says in a statement.

Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement says.

The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says almost 120 Palestinians — 31 patients and their families — had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes.

In a post on X, Tajani says that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest.

The hospital does not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but says that she had arrived in a “state of severe physical deterioration.”