More Gazan children will come to UK for treatment

So far, just two children have been granted medical visas since the war started in October 2023, with a third expected to arrive as early as next week. However, under plans being finalised this weekend, as many as 30 young people would be allowed to enter the country.

Three sources told The Observer that sign-off was imminent. The final details, including whether the government would work directly with the charity Project Pure Hope or through the World Health Organization, are still being ironed out.

Each child will be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and potentially siblings where necessary because of their age, The Observer understands. Relevant biometric checks are expected to be carried out in a third country, such as Jordan.

Officials and ministers have been working behind the scenes for weeks to get the scheme over the line.

One government source said: “Yvette [Cooper, home secretary] and Wes [Streeting, health secretary] have personally punched this through the system, along with David [Lammy, foreign secretary]. The three of them have been in constant contact over this, troubleshooting all the various issues.”

They added it would be a “very small number” owing to the challenging nature of moving people through Gaza, particularly those who are seriously unwell.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, more than 7,000 patients have been evacuated from Gaza, of whom 5,000 are children, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry. Most have gone to Egypt, the UAE or Qatar. Some EU countries – including Spain, Italy, Ireland, Norway and Romania – have taken in about 200 children, and are expected to take more. The UK has taken two: Rama Qudieh and Ghena Abed, whom The Observer interviewed last month.

Keir Starmer said: “We are accelerating efforts to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, bringing them to the UK for specialist medical treatment.”

More than 100 MPs have signed a letter calling for the government to fast-track the scheme, saying that children are in urgent need of help. The letter, coordinated by senior backbench MP Stella Creasy, says: “Parliament may be in recess but the commitment we all share to help these children remains absolute and urgent – with every day, more are harmed or die, making the need to overcome any barriers to increasing the support we give them imperative.

“We stand ready to support whatever it takes to make this happen and ask for your urgent response to this request. Let’s make it happen.”

Creasy told The Observer: “These children urgently need medical care and specialist treatment – with so many other European nations organising schemes to provide this, there’s clearly scope to expand the help we have been providing so that more Gazan children can be treated. Their welfare is the world’s priority.”

Starmer is coming under increasing pressure to recognise Palestinian statehood after French president Emmanuel Macron said he would do so at the United Nations general assembly in September.

A separate letter, coordinated by Labour MP and chair of the International development committee Sarah Champion, and signed by 221 MPs, calls for Starmer to do so at the imminent UN conference in New York.

However, in a statement on Friday following a call between Starmer, Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz, the prime minister appeared to stick to his longstanding position. Starmer said: “Alongside our closest allies, I am working on a pathway to peace in the region, focused on the practical solutions that will make a real difference to the lives of those that are suffering in this war.

“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed into a lasting peace.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility to improve the lives of those who are suffering – which of course, will always be our ultimate goal.”

A month ago, Project Pure Hope asked the government to evacuate a group of about 30 injured Gazan children. Direct evacuations would help save more lives of children who need urgent medical care.

Omar Din, the organisation’s co-founder, told The Observer: “We have been negotiating with the government for over 20 months to deliver and fund a scheme to medically evacuate a cohort of 30 to 50 children.

“We are hopeful that the government will soon approve the proposal put forward by Project Pure Hope, similar to what we have done for Ukraine previously.”

In 2022, 21 Ukrainian children with cancer were treated in the NHS using public funding.

“The proposal awaiting approval by government is a pathway that we have mapped out for the government and ... can be activated tomorrow if and when the government green-light it.”

The two Gazan children who have already come to the UK have been treated privately and given accommodation using some of the £1.5m raised by Project Pure Hope.

Photograph by Andy Hall/The Observer