Canary Islands Ready to Host Gaza Children Needing Medical Care

“We will be one of the first autonomous communities to offer to host children who will arrive from Gaza and need medical treatment.”

The spokesperson for the Canary Islands government, Alfonso Cabello, announced on Monday that the region has contacted the central government to become one of the first autonomous communities ready to receive children arriving from Gaza who require medical care.

Cabello explained, during the press conference that followed the Council of Government, that the Ministry of Health reached out to the Canary Islands authorities on 3 October, requesting collaboration for a new evacuation of seriously ill minors from Gaza who are being transferred to Spain by the Ministry of Defense.

He added that the Ministry of Inclusion will take charge of the social support, and the Canary Islands have offered to accommodate the children. The patients are suffering from oncological diseases, poly‑trauma, and cardiovascular problems, conditions that “cannot be guaranteed to be treated locally” because the conflict “does not provide the assurances that they can receive care under proper conditions.”

Cabello emphasized that, in this case, “the Canary Islands are again among the first autonomous communities,” recalling the response during the DANA storm in Valencia, when a team of professionals traveled to the Valencian Community to contribute a “solidarity quota” to the nation as a whole.