Japan on Wednesday began accepting Palestinians injured in the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said, in its first such step since the launch of large-scale Israeli attacks on the enclave in October 2023.

Japan will provide medical care to two women who have been hospitalized in Egypt, with the first arriving earlier in the day at the Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital in Tokyo. The second will also arrive in the coming days, Nakatani told reporters.

The acceptance of the patients was arranged at the request of the World Health Organization and with the cooperation of the Egyptian government, and it is not intended to relocate people to Japan, according to Nakatani.

"Japan will play proactive roles, not only in urgent humanitarian aid efforts like this but also in supporting the mid- and long-term reconstruction" of Gaza, Nakatani added.

The two women were chosen because their conditions are "expected to improve by undergoing treatment provided in Japan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Toshihiro Kitamura told a regular press conference.

A Defense Ministry official said that Japan currently does not plan to widely accept patients from Gaza.

In February, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a parliamentary session that his government was arranging to offer medical treatment in Japan for those who have "fallen ill or been injured in Gaza."

Largely dependent on the Middle East for oil imports, resource-poor Japan has traditionally pursued a "balanced diplomacy" between Muslim nations and Israel, which is backed by the United States, Tokyo's close security ally.