Injured Gazan children will be allowed into the UK for treatment

Children wounded in Gaza will be allowed into the UK to receive ­treatment in what charities have described as “a historic first”.

Ministers have allowed Project Pure Hope, a coalition of British ­medical charities, to bring “a small number” of Palestinian children to the UK to receive care they could not get in Gaza or other hospitals in the region. The charities are recruiting Arabic-speaking volunteers to support the children and their mothers or other female relatives while they stay in London.

Pure Hope has raised nearly £1m to cover the costs of treatment, ­housing and social care, but it hopes that if it reaches its £2m target then the government will allow further more evacuations. “We have approval from the prime minister and UK government that we can now evacuate some critically ill children from Gaza to the UK for urgent medical treatment,” it said in a statement on its website.

“This is a historic first. “We hope it will set a precedent for future evacuations. UK hospitals are now reviewing cases, and we will soon know which children will be brought here for care.”

Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, told MPs last month the project had been granted approval for “a very small number of cases, to help Gazan children leave the territory and get access to medical treatment here”.

“There are few cases where that is going to be the most appropriate intervention,” he said.

“Most Gazan children will need to be looked after in Gaza. A smaller number will need to be looked after in the region. For a very small number, there will be a medical case for them to be treated here.”

The UK has been slow compared with other European countries in ­allowing Gazan children to come to Britain for ­medical help. Last year countries including Spain, Italy and Ireland accepted injured children. In March, the EU arranged for 70 children and their relatives to go to Italy, Norway and Romania, which has accepted 19 patients and 57 of their relatives.

Children need special medical visas to come to the UK, and it is thought that difficulties in getting biometric information for visas during the conflict has been a stumbling block.

Last June Pure Hope and the charity Save A Child wrote to David Cameron, then foreign secretary, and James Cleverly, then home secretary, ­asking them to allow 11 children to come to the UK for treatment they cannot receive in Gaza. None arrived following that request. In October, Project Pure Hope asked for permission to evacuate 21 critically ill children from the Kamal Adwan hospital, which has since been put “out of service”, according to the World Health Organi s zation.

In December, 50 MPs signed a joint letter to Keir Starmer urging him to act on evacuating children for ­medical treatment.

Photograph Omar Al-Qattaa /AFP/Getty