Popemobile child clinic yet to reach Gaza one year after Francis's death

Popemobile child clinic yet to reach Gaza one year after Francis's death11 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleYolande KnellMiddle East correspondent, JerusalemGeorge JaraisehThe popemobile has been converted for trauma care and vaccinations in the Gaza StripOn the first anniversary of the death of Pope Francis, one of his last wishes - to convert his popemobile into a mobile clinic for children and send it to war-torn Gaza - is still waiting to be granted."It was really the wish of the Holy Father to be able to do something for the children of Gaza," a close confidant of the late pontiff, Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden, tells me. "It's a symbol of hope."The iconic popemobile - from which the pope waved at crowds of thousands of Palestinian Christians during his trip to the Holy Land in 2014 - was afterwards kept on display outside a Church-owned ice-cream parlour in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.Last November, I was shown the newly refitted vehicle equipped for trauma care and vaccinations and told it could treat up to 200 children a day. However, today it remains in a glass case in the same place.AFP via Getty ImagesPope Francis celebrated a Holy Mass for local Christians in Bethlehem's Manger Square in 2014Caritas Jerusalem - the local branch of the international Catholic charity, Caritas - carried out the work on the popemobile for the Vehicle of Hope project and planned to send the vehicle to Gaza.Then, in December, it was included on a list of 37 foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) ordered to stop work by the Israeli authorities after they failed to comply with controversial new "security and transparency" requirements, including staff disclosures.Since then, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has successfully made the case that the new regulations do not apply to Caritas Jerusalem because it has a long-standing, special legal status "operating under the aegis and governance of...