Sick and injured children from Palestine arrive in Catalonia for medical treatment

Six injured and sick children from Palestine, injured due to the attacks on Gaza, landed in Spain's Air Force Base in Zaragoza on Thursday, ahead of being transferred to Catalan hospitals for medical treatment.

The children were accompanied by their family members and are part of a group of 13 minors and one adult, who all traveled to Spain with 44 relatives.

This is part of a coordinated medical operation by the Spanish health ministry, assisted by the Catalan health department.

The six children have been transferred to the hospitals in Barcelona: three patients at Vall d'Hebron, and two at Sant Joan de Déu. The sixth child has been taken to Badalona's Germans Trias i Pujol hospital.

The Vall d'Hebron will treat a 4-year-old girl for transposition of the great vessels, a severe heart defect where the major arteries are switched in position. The center will also treat a 5-month-old boy with left heart hypertrophy and a 4-year-old boy with pulmonary atresia. The hospital has already been treating four children for months, and one of them is still hospitalized.

Meanwhile, the Sant Joan de Déu hospital will treat a 5-year-old boy with congenital heart disease and a 9-year-old boy with medulloblastoma, a primary brain cancer. 

Badalona's Germans Trias i Pujol will treat a 9-year-old girl with polytrauma and multiple wounds and fractures due to shrapnel.

All patients evacuated from Gaza were moved to Amman in Jordan in an organized mission by the World Health Organization (WHO). They spent 24 hours in medical facilities and temporary accommodation provided by Doctors Without Borders and Spain's Embassy in Jordan. 

This is the fourth medical mission undertaken by Spanish authorities to move a total of 43 minors and around 100 family members.

Aside from Catalan hospitals, five children were transferred to the Basque Country, one to Navarra, and one more to Asturias.