A group of 30 to 50 seriously ill and injured Palestinian children are expected to be evacuated from Gaza to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, the BBC reports.
These will be the first children to be sent to Britain as part of an operation organized by the British government in collaboration with the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health.
The children will be selected by the World Health Organization (WHO), and their journey to Britain will take them through a third country, where biometric data will be collected as part of security checks. The children will be accompanied by family members.
The decision comes after numerous calls from British MPs of all parties, who in a joint letter urged the government to act immediately to bring injured and sick children from Gaza to Britain.
In a letter sent last week, 96 MEPs warned that many children are at risk of imminent death due to the “collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza”, and that any obstacles to their evacuation must be removed immediately.
So far, some children from Gaza have been brought privately to Britain through the humanitarian initiative Project Pure Hope (PPH), but the government has not undertaken any official evacuations during the conflict.
In early August, the British government said it was working as a priority to bring in more children for treatment. It is not yet clear which third country the children will go through, exactly how many there will be, or whether there will be other groups to follow.
Due to the impossibility of safely returning to Gaza after treatment, some of the children may enter the asylum system in Britain.
According to UNICEF data, over 50,000 children have been killed or injured since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the United Kingdom has provided funding for the treatment of Palestinian wounded in hospitals in countries in the region and has cooperated with Jordan in airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Children brought to Britain through the programme will be treated on the NHS, while a cross-party taskforce is working to speed up the evacuation of those in urgent need of treatment.
The British Home Office has previously clarified that before departing for Britain, children and their guardians will undergo biometric and security checks.
Since the start of the war, dozens of seriously ill Palestinians have been evacuated to other countries – including over 180 people to Italy.
The UN has warned of widespread malnutrition in Gaza, while a recent report by UN-backed experts highlighted that the "worst pattern of starvation" is actually happening in Gaza.
Israel, for its part, has denied imposing restrictions on humanitarian aid and has accused international organizations of failing to distribute it.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, over 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive, which came in response to Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, where about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
