A Mitsubishi vehicle once used by Pope Francis during his 2014 visit to Bethlehem will be transformed into a mobile clinic for children in the Gaza Strip, in accordance with a wish he expressed while still alive, the Vatican has announced.

“Work has already begun” on converting the small white vehicle, according to Caritas, the Vatican’s humanitarian organization.

Peter Bruneel, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden, told AFP that the initiative was taken by Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius, who believed the vehicle should be put to good use. “He spoke to the Pope about it, and the Pope agreed,” he added.

“The goal is to provide immediate medical care to those deprived of basic services, and to protect their rights and dignity,” Caritas emphasized, reminding that “nearly one million children are displaced while the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.”

“When the humanitarian corridor to Gaza opens,” the vehicle, to be operated by Caritas Jerusalem, “will be ready to offer essential care to children.”

The mobile clinic will be equipped with suture kits, syringes, oxygen, and vaccines stored in a small refrigerator. It will have a driver and be operated by a team of doctors.

“This vehicle expresses His Holiness’s love and solidarity for the most vulnerable, sentiments he consistently expressed throughout the crisis in Gaza,” commented Anton Safar, Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem.

A day before his death, in his Easter message read by an aide from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis condemned “the dramatic and abhorrent humanitarian situation” in Gaza. On that occasion, he reiterated his call for a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave and the release of Israeli hostages.

Following Pope Francis’ death, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hailed him as “a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights,” noting that “he had recognized the Palestinian state and allowed the Palestinian flag to be raised at the Vatican.”