Colombia Plans to Provide Medical Treatment to Palestinian Children Injured in Israel-Hamas War 

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
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Colombia Plans to Provide Medical Treatment to Palestinian Children Injured in Israel-Hamas War 

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)

A Colombian military hospital would provide medical treatment to Palestinian children injured in the Israel-Hamas war under a plan announced Thursday by the country’s Foreign Ministry.

Colombia’s Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay told reporters the children would travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation. She did not provide further details, including the number of children who would receive treatment, when they would arrive in Colombia or how long they would remain in the country.

Neither the foreign ministry nor the office of President Gustavo Petro immediately responded to a request for additional information from The Associated Press. Taylor Jay made the announcement during Petro’s trip to Sweden.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Germany have been receiving Palestinians in need of medical treatment as a result of the war that began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.

Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive. In May, he broke diplomatic ties with Israel saying that he could not maintain relations with the “genocidal” government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Taylor Jay on Thursday said the government believes injured children can be treated by Colombian military doctors in part due to “the expertise” they have acquired while caring for people wounded during Colombia’s decadeslong internal conflict.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke, Colombia has repatriated 310 of its citizens on three humanitarian flights. Petro also granted Colombian nationality to a Palestinian woman, married to a Colombian man, who was trapped in Gaza with two of her Colombian children. The family settled in the South American country in November.



Global Displacement to Rise by 6.7 Million People by End of Next Year, Aid Group Says 

Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp set up at Palestine Stadium, which was damaged during the Israeli offensive, in Gaza City, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp set up at Palestine Stadium, which was damaged during the Israeli offensive, in Gaza City, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Global Displacement to Rise by 6.7 Million People by End of Next Year, Aid Group Says 

Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp set up at Palestine Stadium, which was damaged during the Israeli offensive, in Gaza City, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp set up at Palestine Stadium, which was damaged during the Israeli offensive, in Gaza City, March 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Some 6.7 million additional people are expected to be newly displaced around the world by the end of next year, the Danish Refugee Council said on Friday, just as aid cuts from key donors like the United States take effect.

The UN refugee agency said last year that the number of forcibly displaced people around the globe stood at over 117 million people and warned that number could rise.

"These are not cold statistics. These are families forced to flee their homes, carrying next to nothing, and searching for water, food, and shelter," said Charlotte Slente, secretary general of the Danish Refugee Council in a statement.

Twenty-seven countries account for nearly a third of all global displacements. The projection is based on an AI-driven model that predicts displacement trends by analyzing over 100 indicators, including factors such as security, politics and economics in those countries.

It forecasts that nearly a third of new displacements will be from Sudan, which is already the world's worst refugee crisis after nearly two years of war. Another 1.4 million people are expected to be forcibly displaced from Myanmar, the report said.

US President Donald Trump is cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid programs globally as part of a major spending overhaul by the world's biggest aid donor.

The Danish Refugee Council is one of the aid groups hit and has had more than 20 contract terminations.

Cuts from Washington and other key donors are already impacting refugees.

The UN refugee agency said that funding shortages had shuttered programs to protect adolescent girls from child marriage in South Sudan and a safe house for displaced women in danger of being killed in Ethiopia.

"Millions are facing starvation and displacement, and just as they need us most, wealthy nations are slashing aid. It's a betrayal of the most vulnerable," said Slente.