Vehicle being refitted to respond to dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

A popemobile used by Pope Francis is being converted into a mobile healthcare unit for children in Gaza, in line with the late pontiff's final wishes.

The vehicle, used by Francis during his 2014 trip to the Holy Land, has been entrusted to the Catholic aid network Caritas Jerusalem, Vatican News reports.

Francis requested that the "Popemobile of Peace" be repurposed to provide primary care to injured and malnourished children in the Palestinian territory devastated by Israeli airstrikes.

"The goal is to deliver medical care directly to those who’ve been cut off from essential services and to protect their basic rights and dignity", according to Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project.

Caritas is retrofitting the popemobile with life-saving medical supplies and equipment for the diagnosis, examination and treatment of children.

A team of medics will run the mobile clinic which is currently in Jerusalem and will enter Gaza if and when Israel opens a humanitarian corridor.

"This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed” - Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, said in a statement - “It’s not just a vehicle, it’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”

Up until a few days before his death, Pope Francis telephoned the Holy Family Church in Gaza almost every night for 19 months to speak to church leaders and members of the tiny Christian population in the besieged territory.

Photo credit: giulio napolitano / Shutterstock.com.