On November 8 last year, a naval ship equipped with a hospital on board set sail from the Latin port of Civitavecchia. The operation was announced with a press conference by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto of Fratelli d'Italia. Crosetto in particular had highlighted the timeliness of the Italian initiative, claiming that our country was the first to move in this direction.
At the time of departure, the ship had a crew of more than 170 sailors on board, including approximately 30 Navy doctors, nurses and surgeons employed at the health facility, as well as two Red Cross volunteer nurses. It was unclear what the ship's destination would be. Majority representatives and various newspapers and television programs had said that the Vulcano was sailing “toward Gaza.” The Defense Ministry's statement used a vaguer formula and said the ship was “ready to depart for the Middle East,” that is, the eastern Mediterranean.
In a second phase, the mission also envisaged the establishment of a field hospital, after the necessary inspections to determine which location would be most suitable, that is, the location that was both safest and closest to the Gaza Strip territory.
The operation turned out to be more complex than initially described. The Vulcano ship sailed from the port of Civitavecchia without knowing what its final destination was. The plan called for a first stop in Cyprus, where four other Italian military ships from the “Secure Mediterranean” patrol mission were already deployed. The final port of call would only be established at a later date, depending on the outcome of discussions that the defense and foreign ministries, in cooperation with intelligence agencies, were holding with other countries in the region. Meanwhile, the Vulcano brought on board a team of six military doctors and nurses from Qatar, as well as other Italian specialists: three anesthesiologists, two surgeons, an orthopedic surgeon, nineteen nurses with different specializations, a radiology technician and two biologists. The Francesca Rava Foundation, a defense partner, then sent two pediatricians, a gynecologist and a midwife.
In the last days of November, it became clear that the hypothesis considered by the defense, namely to sail to the south of the Gaza Strip, was not practical: the risk of exposing the ship to attacks or threats was not feasible, moreover, would have the ongoing war still can make it more complicated. After coordination with NATO allies, the Vulcano received permission from the Egyptian government to dock on December 3 at the port of Al-Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, about fifty kilometers west of the Rafah border crossing on the border between Egypt and the Strip Egypt.
Minister Crosetto speaks in the Chamber of Deputies on September 20, 2023 (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse)
The port of Al-Arish and the surrounding area have been chosen by Egypt as a kind of logistic base for humanitarian aid sent to the Gaza Strip from various countries around the world since November 13, when a field hospital was sent there from Turkey. In the following days, more aid containers had arrived from several European countries and the staff of the Red Crescent – the equivalent of the Red Cross – had begun their work. On November 29, a French Navy amphibious helicopter carrier, the Dixmude, equipped like the Vulcano with an onboard hospital, docked in the port of Al-Arish. Al-Arish is also home to one of the area's most important hospitals, treating many Palestinians fleeing the Gaza Strip.
“We want to be the first step in an initiative in which we don’t want to be the only ones, but we want to be the first, the only ones,” said Minister Crosetto a few hours before the Vulcano’s departure. When the ship arrived in Al-Arish on December 3rd, various operational units from other countries were already on site. The French Dixmude left the port of Toulon on November 20, twelve days later than the Vulcano, but having already received approval from the Egyptian government. It had arrived On November 27th we went to Al-Arish, where the first patients were admitted on board the next day. The first operations were carried out on the French ship on December 1st.
A few days later, between December 4 and 5, the Vulcano became fully operational when it received on board the first Palestinian patients who had left the Gaza Strip and had already been admitted to Egyptian hospitals. The Italian ship is thus helping to reduce the pressure on the Egyptian health system. Meanwhile, the Italian Defense General Staff has started discussions with the authorities of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which already have medical personnel in the Gaza Strip, to examine whether and how it is possible to directly receive people fleeing the Gaza Strip to be treated on the volcano.
For days, quite delicate operations have been carried out at Vulcano, which take place in the two existing operating rooms and are primarily aimed at saving injured limbs that are at risk of amputation. The first case involved a 38-year-old woman who was a victim of an explosion and was rescued from the rubble with serious injuries to both arms: the operation lasted five hours and included, among other things, the transplantation of a nerve. The woman has regained the functionality of her arms. In other cases, surgical interventions are used to stabilize patients, especially young patients, who have arrived in serious condition and can only be transferred to the Children's Hospital in Doha, Qatar, after an initial partial operation.
A surgical operation on the Vulcano ship (Department of Defense)
As for the second phase of the operation, which involves the establishment of a field hospital, the situation is prohibitive. On December 6, Minister Crosetto reported to the Chamber on the progress of the mission. He explained that the government intends “to be able to place it within the Gaza Strip,” adding that “discussions have been underway for days with Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to find the most appropriate solution.” Then he added the most important detail: On December 5, “our military team began reconnaissance in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Crosetto was referring to a team of a dozen soldiers who went on patrol to find out where the hospital could be located. The most popular hypothesis was to do this near a field hospital with around 150 beds that the United Arab Emirates opened on December 2 in the south of the Gaza Strip in agreement with the Israeli government and army. However, the result of the Italian reconnaissance, according to the Ministry of Defense, was very negative: while they were in the field, a few kilometers north of Rafah, the soldiers witnessed clashes and violence between different groups of Palestinians, and that made it possible at the moment it is not advisable to continue with the mission.