Italy is sending a navy hospital ship to the eastern Mediterranean to treat the injured in the Gaza Strip. The “Vulcano” is initially heading towards Cyprus and, depending on the weather, will arrive “in the coming days,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Rome. She is with Operating rooms, diagnostic equipment, medication and 30 medical professionals fitted. Additional medical staff should follow as soon as the local hospital is operational. The spokesman did not say how close the ship would travel to the Gaza Strip.
Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said yesterday that The deployment of the hospital ship will be followed “in the coming days” by the deployment of an army field hospital. According to the Italian news agency AGI, Crosetto said that such an initiative “will be welcomed by Israel as well as by the Palestinians.”