A young Palestinian woman evacuated from Gaza for urgent medical care has died in Italy, highlighting Gaza’s deepening famine.

A young Palestinian woman who was evacuated from Gaza to an Italian hospital in critical condition has died, Pisa University Hospital announced on Saturday.

The 20-year-old, identified by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Pisa late Thursday aboard an Italian government humanitarian flight. Hospital officials said her condition was “very complex” and that she was suffering from severe emaciation — a condition marked by extreme weight loss and muscle wasting.

After undergoing medical tests and beginning treatment on Friday, she suffered a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest and could not be saved.

Abu Zuhri had traveled with her mother on one of three Italian Air Force flights this week that transported 31 patients and their relatives from Gaza to hospitals in Rome, Milan, and Pisa.

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The Italian Foreign Ministry said all the patients were suffering from serious illnesses, injuries, or amputations. More than 180 children and young people have been brought from Gaza to Italy since the start of the Israeli war on the territory.

Tuscany’s regional president, Eugenio Giani, expressed condolences to her family. While the hospital did not specify her illness, Italian news agencies reported she had been severely malnourished.

Humanitarian organizations, UN agencies, and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have warned of an escalating hunger crisis in Gaza. The Strip, devastated by months of war, has been under total blockade since March 2, when Israel shut all crossings, halting the entry of humanitarian aid. Only limited quantities have been allowed in, far below the minimum needed for the population.

Since October 2023, the Israeli military — backed by the United States — has waged a war on Gaza that has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, wounded over 155,000, and displaced nearly the entire population, in destruction described as unprecedented in the Strip’s history.

(PC, AJA)