Foreign undersecretary Maria Tripodi greeted the third group of sick and injured Palestinian children to arrive in Italy from war-ravaged Gaza for treatment, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Tripodi and foreign ministry crisis unti staff met the children and their families at Ciampino military airport near Rome, where they landed aboard an Italian airforce plane on Friday, the statement said.
Some of the children are being transferred to the Bambin Gesù hospital in Rome, while others will journey on to the Tuscan city of Pisa's military airport, bound for other hospitals.
Eighteen wounded Palestinian children from Gaza - including an orphaned four-month-old baby - arrived in the northern Italian port of La Spezia from Egypt on Monday after 11 sick and injured children from Gaza landed at Rome's Ciampino military airport aboard a special flight on 30 January.
Italy, the first European country to launch an international rescue operation for the victims of the four-month-old war in Gaza, plans to bring 100 Palestinian children for treatment in hospitals in Rome, Genova, Bologna and Florence.
“My thanks to the crisis unit staff and the other state institutions who worked intensively to enable this important and delicate humanitarian operation to be carried out," Tripodi said.
"Italy stands alongside Gaza's civilian population and is committed to alleviating the suffering of those afflicted by the consequences of the (Israel-Hamas) conflict, starting with the most fragile," she said.
Intelligence officials and staff from Italy's embassy in Cairo and its defence, health and interior ministries as well as major pediatric hospitals across the country have been involved in the ongoing humanitarian operation, the statement noted.
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