Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Wednesday that his country would be accepting wounded people from the Gaza Strip for treatment.
“We are keenly considering the possibility of treating a very small number of patients in Japan who have difficulty being treated locally,” he told the upper house of the National Diet, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
“The main premise is that they will return to their home [after treatment],” he said, attempting to dispel rumors that the proposal was tied to US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Gazans. “The purpose is not to relocate people from the Gaza Strip to Japan.”
Ishiba was the second head of government to visit the US following Trump’s inauguration in January, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They focused their discussions on trade and tariffs.
Trump's call to relocate Gazans
Trump’s push to relocate Gazans from the territory has been met with strong pushback from many of the surrounding Arab states, in particular Egypt and Jordan, which the president has suggested should take the majority of Gazans.
Both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II opposed the plan strongly, citing fears that Gazans would be refused reentry and the rocky history Palestinian refugees have had in both countries.
Despite this, Abdullah told Trump that his country was willing to take in at least 2,000 sick or injured children from Gaza for treatment.
Egypt also opened its doors to wounded and sick Gazans who require treatment, partially as a requirement of the ceasefire deal but also on humanitarian grounds.
A World Health Organization representative told the BBC on February 1 that around 14,000 people need to access treatment unavailable in Gaza and that of this number, around 5,000 are expected to be children.