The A330 medicalized aircraft of the Air and Space Army's Medical Aeroevacuation Unit (UMAER) landed at Torrejón air base around 5:00 AM, transferring 20 sick Palestinian children accompanied by 81 family members from the Gaza Strip.
Defense sources have indicated that this is a "joint operation," the sixth carried out in the last 18 months, together with the Ministry of Health "to offer treatment to patients with different pathologies" in Spain.
Professionals from the Medical Aeroevacuation Unit (UMAER), including pediatric intensivists and nursing staff, as well as pilots from Wing 45 and personnel from the Air Deployment Support Squadron (EADA), participated in the evacuation operation.
In total, the Ministries of Health and Defense will transfer 101 people to the country, who will arrive in Spain throughout Tuesday morning. Among the evacuated minors are six with traumatic injuries of various kinds, four with nephrological pathology, five with ophthalmological pathologies, two with congenital heart defects, one with esophagitis, another with hydrocephalus, and a final one with metabolic disease.
Once on Spanish territory, the patients will be transferred to hospitals in Asturias, Cantabria, Navarra, Euskadi, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencia, Madrid, and Murcia. The planning of the distribution and healthcare coordination among the different centers was carried out by the National Institute of Health Management, INGESA, an agency dependent on the Ministry of Health.
The Spanish Embassy in Jordan was responsible for the necessary procedures to launch the operation, including the issuance of visas.