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Israel Offers to Treat Ukrainian Child Cancer Patients After Deadly Russian Strike on Hospital
Rescuers and paramedics carry a body of a child found at a site of a building heavily damaged during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Israel has offered to take in and treat child cancer patients displaced by Russia’s deadly missile strike that destroyed part of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday, according to a new report.
At least 42 people were killed in the massive Russian daytime barrage in multiple Ukrainian cities. The Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, including its childhood cancer ward, was hit during the onslaught. Pictures on social media showed parents comforting bloodied children and rescuers digging bodies from amidst the building’s rubble.
“We are extracting whoever we can. We don’t know the number of people trapped there,” Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said in a press conference outside the hospital.
Following the destruction, Israel offered to take in and treat displaced cancer patients from the Ukrainian hospital to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, according to the Israeli media outlet Ynet. The offer was reportedly conveyed to the Ukrainians by Israel’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky.
“The Israeli embassy has long-standing ties with the Okhmatdyt Hospital. At the beginning of the war, the embassy delivered medical equipment to the hospital, their doctors visited Israel, our doctors came and advised online,” Brodsky told Ynet. “The embassy is exploring the possibility of assisting in the rehabilitation of the heavily damaged hospital. I also spoke with the Sheba Medical Center.”
Brodsky noted that, at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, several children with oncological diseases who were hospitalized in Ukraine were evacuated to Israel for treatment. “Israel has a reputation as a country with a big heart, and we are doing everything to maintain that reputation,” he said.
According to Sheba Medical Center, located by Tel Aviv, its professionals treat around 50,000 cancer patients a year and are the “absolute leader in cancer treatment in Israel.”
Meanwhile, world leaders have condemned the Russian attack this week.
“Russia’s missile strikes that today [Monday] killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians and caused damage and casualties at Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital are a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality,” US President Joe Biden tweeted.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, decried Russia’s strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv as “horrendous.”
In the past, Israel has come to the aid of nations confronted by humanitarian crises. In 2020, for example, Israel dispatched teams to Honduras and Turkey in the aftermath of earthquakes in each country.
Israel has also provided numerous instances of aid to war-torn Ukraine since Russia’s large-scale invasion in early 2022. According to Mashav, the Israeli government’s foreign aid department, an Israeli field hospital was established in western Ukraine staffed by personnel from Sheba Medical Center. Magav has also shipped food, medicine, and generators to war-torn regions of Ukraine.
The Russian strike came before NATO leaders gathered in Washington, DC for a summit this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also in the US capital and urged the NATO leaders to act promptly in standing up to Russian aggression.
The post Israel Offers to Treat Ukrainian Child Cancer Patients After Deadly Russian Strike on Hospital first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.