Belgian hospitals are prepared to treat injured residents of Gaza if this is requested by Egypt, Belgium's Defence Minister has announced.
"The Queen Astrid Military Hospital [in Brussels] is ready, if the Egyptian authorities request it, to receive the wounded in the burn ward," Ludivine Dedonder (PS) informed the Chamber of Representatives on Friday morning.
"In cooperation with Belgium's Health Ministry, we have also indicated that we are willing to take care of other injured people in various hospitals or healthcare facilities in the country," she added.
Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS). Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
Dedonder's comments came on the same day that Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who is currently on a two-day visit to the Middle-East with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez, urged Israel to open its border crossings with the Palestinian enclave to facilitate the delivery of increased supplies of humanitarian aid.
Currently, all aid into Gaza must pass through the territory's southern Rafah crossing with Egypt.
"Israel should open other crossings," De Croo said during a joint press conference with Sanchez and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "We only have one crossing, which is not enough. Israel should open more to deliver aid as innocent civilians are in need."
De Croo also praised the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began on Friday as "good news" but emphasised that Belgium's "ultimate goal is to have a permanent ceasefire".
On Friday, Hamas released 13 Thai and 12 Israeli hostages, whom its militants had seized during its terror attack in Israel on 7 October. In total, the EU-designated terrorist organisation took ca 240 hostages, including children, women and elderly people, after massacring civilians in Israeli villages and at music festival. The International Red Cross has not been allowed to visit the hostages.
