Professor Tatsuhiko Kubo, a specialist in public health from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Hiroshima University, led a team of three experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on an emergency medical needs assessment mission in Palestine. On the evening of December 25, 2023, they departed from Haneda Airport bound for Egypt, the neighboring country to Palestine's Gaza Strip.

With extensive experience in emergency medical support and international coordination, the team will gather information primarily in Cairo until early January. Their mission involves collaborating with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate emergency medical support needs and explore possibilities for supporting international coordination efforts.

Professor Kubo specializes in international emergency assistance and disaster medicine. His past experiences include participating in international emergency assistance activities in Moldova, the Philippines, and Mozambique.

We have been dispatched for Christmas. The smiles of children, which are taken for granted in Japan, are now at risk here. While hoping for peace, Japanese disaster medical specialists will utilize the expertise and networks accumulated through frameworks such as international emergency aid teams and DMAT, as well as their experience in dispatching to the Republic of Moldova during the 2022 Ukrainian humanitarian crisis, to provide emergency medical assistance.