LONDON: British officials are working to get critically sick and injured children out of Gaza so they can receive specialist treatment in UK hospitals, the British foreign secretary said Monday, adding that the first patients will arrive in coming weeks.
David Lammy said he was “outraged” by Israel not allowing enough aid to enter Gaza as he announced 15 million pounds ($20 million) more for medical assistance for Gaza and the region.
“This is not a natural disaster, it’s a manmade famine in the 21st century,” he said. “I’m outraged by the Israeli government’s refusal to allow in sufficient aid.”
“We all know there is only one way out — an immediate ceasefire,” Lammy added.
He told lawmakers that British officials are also supporting students from Gaza who have been granted scholarships at UK universities so that they can start their studies in the fall.
Lammy said a “massive humanitarian response” was needed to prevent more Palestinians from dying and starving after the world’s leading authority on food crises said in late August that the Gaza Strip’s largest city is in the grips of famine.
He did not give specifics about the number of sick children or scholars that Britain is accepting from Gaza. But Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament on Monday that officials are expediting visas for those Palestinians, as well as their accompanying family members.
British media have reported that officials are facilitating the evacuation of nine students in Gaza who were awarded Chevening scholarships, funded by Britain’s Foreign Office, but that dozens of other Palestinian students who have offers to study in the UK were still in limbo.
Officials have said they will not give specifics on the evacuation process because the situation was sensitive and complex.
Other European nations including Italy have also evacuated students and sick children from Gaza.
The UK funds field hospital operations in Gaza through a charity and works with the World Health Organization in Egypt to help treat some of the 8,000 people from Gaza who have been medically evacuated there.
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UK ‘outraged’ at Israel restricting aid as it works to evacuate children from Gaza for treatment
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UK ‘outraged’ at Israel restricting aid as it works to evacuate children from Gaza for treatment
- David Lammy said he was ‘outraged’ by Israel not allowing enough aid to enter Gaza
- Yvette Cooper told Parliament that officials are expediting visas for Palestinians
Morocco residents begin returning to northwest as flood waters recede
RABAT: Moroccan authorities began organizing the gradual return of residents to the city of Ksar El Kebir and other flood-hit northwestern areas as weather conditions improved, state media showed on Monday.
Authorities backed by the army had helped evacuate 188,000 people since early February, to protect them from overflowing river waters that swept across 110,000 hectares in the northwest.
Most residents of Ksar El Kebir, 213 km north of Rabat, are now allowed to return home, except for those living in a few neighborhoods, the interior ministry said on Monday.
Investment plan to upgrade infrastructure
Train and bus rides were offered free of charge to help transport residents who had sought shelter with relatives in other cities, or in centers and camps provided by authorities, state TV showed.
Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($330 million) to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-affected residents, farmers and shop-owners in the inundated areas, the prime minister’s office said last week, declaring the hardest-hit municipalities disaster areas.
The Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160 percent of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows, leading to rising water levels in the Loukous river which inundated Ksar El Kebir and surrounding plains.
Rainfall this winter was 35 percent above the average recorded since the 1990s and three times higher than last year, official data showed.
Morocco’s national dam-filling rate rose to nearly 70 percent from 27 percent a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.
The exceptional rainfall ended a seven-year drought that had pushed the country to ramp up investments in desalination.
Authorities backed by the army had helped evacuate 188,000 people since early February, to protect them from overflowing river waters that swept across 110,000 hectares in the northwest.
Most residents of Ksar El Kebir, 213 km north of Rabat, are now allowed to return home, except for those living in a few neighborhoods, the interior ministry said on Monday.
Investment plan to upgrade infrastructure
Train and bus rides were offered free of charge to help transport residents who had sought shelter with relatives in other cities, or in centers and camps provided by authorities, state TV showed.
Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($330 million) to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-affected residents, farmers and shop-owners in the inundated areas, the prime minister’s office said last week, declaring the hardest-hit municipalities disaster areas.
The Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160 percent of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows, leading to rising water levels in the Loukous river which inundated Ksar El Kebir and surrounding plains.
Rainfall this winter was 35 percent above the average recorded since the 1990s and three times higher than last year, official data showed.
Morocco’s national dam-filling rate rose to nearly 70 percent from 27 percent a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.
The exceptional rainfall ended a seven-year drought that had pushed the country to ramp up investments in desalination.
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