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One of Pope Francis's popemobiles is to be converted into a mobile health clinic for children and sent to Gaza, official Vatican media has reported, fulfilling a final wish of the late pontiff.
The vehicle is being kitted out with diagnostic and emergency equipment to help young patients in the Palestinian enclave, where health services have been destroyed by Israeli military operations.
It will also carry vaccines, suture kits, rapid tests for infections and other life-saving supplies. Doctors will staff the clinic once humanitarian access to the enclave, currently restricted by Israel, is restored.
Pope Francis, who died last month, entrusted the project to the Catholic aid organisation Caritas Jerusalem in the months before his death, Vatican News said.
“This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News. “With the vehicle, we will be able to reach children who today have no access to health care – children who are injured and malnourished.”
Pope Francis had several popemobiles. The one to be sent to Gaza was used on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2014.
The Vatican has said the pontiff maintained near-daily contact with Gaza's small Christian community during the war, offering prayers, solidarity and appeals for peace in what he described as an “immensely grave” humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
Mr Brune said the mobile clinic project aimed to send a message that “the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza”.
Pope Francis was unwavering in his stance on the Gaza war. He was one of the most consistent global voices calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted access for aid.
“They are not statistics. They are names, faces, stories,” he said in December, insisting that the suffering of civilians, especially children, must not be dismissed.
The pontiff also spoke starkly about the morality of modern warfare, condemning what he referred to as “war crimes” in Gaza. “We are witnessing attacks on civilians and total disregard for international humanitarian law,” he said.
Until his final months, he remained in contact with the clergy inside Gaza, often receiving first-hand accounts of conditions in the enclave, the Vatican said.
“This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable,” said Anton Asfar, secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem.
A conclave to elect a new pope is to begin on May 7.
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