LONDON: Dozens of sick and injured children from Gaza are expected to arrive for treatment in the UK in the coming days.
They will be the first beneficiaries of a government scheme to provide healthcare via the National Health Service.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in July that the children would be evacuated “urgently,” with reports blaming red tape for the delay in their arrival.
More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel’s military operation began in October 2023, according to UNICEF.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Daily Mirror newspaper that the first group of children had left Gaza and were “traveling now to the UK.”
“It’s a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them actually leave Gaza and then also travel through other countries in order to be able to get to the UK. But that work is underway and I’m determined to make sure that we can do our bit to help those injured families,” she said.
The BBC reported that the group numbers between 30 and 50 Palestinian children. Each would be accompanied by family members if necessary, the reports said.
The children have been receiving care in another country in the Middle East before traveling to Britain.
While this is the first time the government has arranged for children to be treated in the UK, a small number have been transferred privately as part of an initiative by Project Pure Hope.
Starmer said in July that the UK was “urgently accelerating efforts to evacuate children from Gaza” who needed critical medical assistance.
The transfer appears to have been delayed by the government insisting that the children’s relatives must travel with visas containing biometric data, The i Paper reported last week.
Hospitals across the UK are ready to admit the children but some in the most serious condition have had to be sent to other countries.
Nearly 100 UK lawmakers last month called on the government to speed up the evacuation. Labour member of parliament Dr. Simon Opher told The i Paper that the delay was “unacceptable” and that the need for biometric visas should be “scrapped without delay.”
Omar Din, co-founder of PPH, which has been advising the government on the transfer, said that while he welcomed the evacuation, the UK should be doing more.
“We appeal to the UK government to look to its European neighbors and to take in more children comparable to our counterparts,” he said.
By comparison, Italy has carried out 14 missions to evacuate more than 180 Palestinian children from Gaza for treatment.
Israel’s near two-year onslaught on the territory has destroyed the healthcare system and had a devastating impact on children there.
More than half of the territory’s hospitals are no longer operating and those that are are close to collapse, aid agencies have warned.
