The 20-year-old Palestinian woman who was reported to have died from severe malnutrition in an Italian hospital after being evacuated from Gaza was likely suffering from a rare and aggressive leukemia, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revealed on Sunday.
International media widely reported over the weekend that the woman, Marah Salad Mahmoud Zohry, died shortly after arriving in Pisa, Italy, during the latest round of medical evacuation from the Gaza Strip. The Italian government evacuated a total of 31 patients from Eilat in critical condition who were suffering from serious congenital diseases or needed amputations for their wounds.
The University Hospital of Pisa said Abu Zuhri’s condition was “very complex” at the time she arrived in Italy. “She is in a profound state of organic wasting,” doctors said.
After undergoing some tests and starting treatment, she had a sudden respiratory crisis and went into cardiac arrest, which resulted in her death, the hospital said.
While Italian media outlets reported that she suffered from “severe malnutrition,” the hospital did not elaborate on her condition, only saying that she had been “hospitalized in the Hematology Unit.”
However, on Sunday, COGAT revealed that Italian authorities had contacted Israel requesting Marah’s evacuation “due to her illness,” which Israel had approved.
COGAT reveals that "starved" Palestinian woman had aggressive leukemia
COGAT then shared a medical report for Zohry from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital Cancer Center Outpatient Clinic, which stated that her blood film results were “in keeping with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).” APL is a rare and highly aggressive blood cancer. If untreated, the average survival rate is said to be less than a month.
As well as having high promyelocytes, Zohry was reportedly suffering with “pancytopenia [reduced number of all blood cells], pleural effusion [fluid build up between the lungs and chest wall], and generalized edema [widespread swelling throughout the body].”
Some Italian papers, such as La Stampa, did report on Zohry’s leukemia, but many did not. ANSA said, “The 20-year-old died of starvation.” Similar reports were published by Avvenire, Corriere Della Sera, and Toscana Notizie.
President of the Regional Council of Tuscany Antonio Mazzeo said, “Marah did not die of illness; she was killed by hunger, by a hunger that was chosen, inflicted, used as a weapon of war.”
The spokesman for Amnesty Italy, Riccardo Noury, said, “Now that a Palestinian girl has died of hunger here, in our own country, will we finally be able to rediscover some humanity and, above all, take real, concrete action to push Israel to stop using hunger as a weapon of war?”
Prof. Sara Galimberti, director of the Hematology Unit at the Pisa University Hospital, told ANSA that despite Zohry’s “suspected diagnosis of very severe acute leukemia... we were able to prove that she did not have it.”
According to La Nazione, the family has not permitted an autopsy, and Zohry will be buried in Italy.
Ties to Palestinian universities
The University of Pisa (affiliated with the University Hospital of Pisa) has an active partnership with Palestinian and Jordanian universities.
The partnership forms part of the BASE project – formally known as “Bologna for Science Education in Palestine and Jordan” – which is led by the Palestinian An-Najah National University (Nablus) and which aims to rejuvenate higher education systems in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.
Hamas won the An-Najah student council elections in 2023, becoming the second West Bank university (after Birzeit) to become a foothold for the group.
The University of Pisa broke off academic relations with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Reichman University of Herzliya as a “political gesture” toward Israel at the end of July.
The university also said last month that Israel is “objectively” committing “ethnic cleansing.” It called on the Italian government to recognize a Palestinian state and to revoke the memorandum between the government of the Italian Republic and the government of the State of Israel on cooperation in the military and defense sector.
It also expressed solidarity with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, who attended Pisa University.