Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment drive vehicles carrying their belongings on a main axis in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Tokyo: Japan on Wednesday began accepting Palestinians injured in the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, in its first such step since the launch of large-scale Israeli aggression on the Strip in October 2023.
Japan will provide medical care to two Palestinians who have been hospitalized in Egypt, with the first arriving earlier in the day at the Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital in Tokyo. The second will also arrive in the coming days, Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters.
The acceptance of the patients was arranged at the request of the World Health Organization, and it is not intended to relocate people to Japan, according to Nakatani.
"Japan will play proactive roles, not only in urgent humanitarian aid efforts like this but also in supporting the mid- and long-term reconstruction" of Gaza, Nakatani added.
In February, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a parliamentary session that his government was arranging to offer medical treatment in Japan for those who have "fallen ill or been injured in Gaza."
