Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza following the Hamas-Israel conflict, the foreign ministry has said, AFP reports.

The children and their families, a total of 45 people, had on Wednesday crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, where they underwent medical checks at the Italian hospital in Cairo, officials said.

They were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

Treating the children was part of Italy’s efforts to promote peace and dialogue in the region, he said Friday, a “diplomacy made of solidarity, which restores hope to the most fragile and defenceless”.

Some of the children were due to be treated in the capital, the others heading north for treatment in hospitals including in Turin and Milan, a ministry spokesman said.

Two of the children disembarked in Rome were headed for the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which treated nine other Palestinian children last year.

All those nine, ranging from one to 15 years old, have been discharged, a hospital spokesman told AFP.

“Every child we bring to Italy is a sign of hope, a commitment to life and the future,” Defence Secretary Guido Crosetto said.