GAZA CITY
Forty-five Palestinian children injured during Israel's just-ended 51-day war on the Gaza Strip left the Palestinian territory on Monday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt en route to Germany and Austria where they will receive medical treatment.
The children were accompanied by a German medical delegation headed by Jalal Osman, the administrative director of the Union of Palestinian Doctors and Pharmacists in Berlin, who arrived in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
Osman described the various injuries sustained by the children as both "serious" and "complicated," saying they could not be easily treated in Gaza due to inadequate medical equipment and supplies.
"The children will be treated in cooperation with German societies and hospitals across both Germany and Austria," Osman told Anadolu Agency.
He added that his union would help three additional groups of injured Gazan children receive medical treatment in Germany and Austria.
Israel's devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip finally ended with the announcement on August 26 of an open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions.
The offensive left some 2,147 Gazans dead and 11,000 injured – the vast majority of them civilians – while partially or completely destroying thousands of residential structures across the territory.
According to Israeli figures, 67 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were also killed over the course of the operation – the highest military death toll suffered by Israel since it lost 119 troops in its 2006 war on Lebanon.
www.aa.com.tr/en
