The UK government is preparing to bring dozens of seriously ill and injured children from Gaza for specialist treatment, amid mounting calls for countries to expand medical evacuation programmes as the territory's health system collapses under months of brutal Israeli war.
According to officials briefed on the plans, an initial group of between 30 and 50 children will be flown to Britain in the coming weeks, multiple news outlets reported.
The operation — coordinated by the UK’s Foreign Office, Home Office and Department of Health — will be the first organised transfer of young patients from Gaza to the UK.
Children are expected to be identified by doctors from the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza and prioritised based on urgent need, with the World Health Organization (WHO) overseeing their evacuation.
The move follows a letter signed by 96 cross-party British MPs urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government to act "without delay".
The MPs warned that Gaza's medical infrastructure had been "decimated" and said conditions were deteriorating "by the minute", citing UNICEF figures that more than 50,000 children have been killed or wounded since October 2023.
WHO estimates that nearly 15,000 Palestinians — many of them children — require urgent evacuation for life-threatening trauma or chronic illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
UNICEF has pressed both the UK and the European Union to expand their role, pointing out that Britain has so far received only two medical evacuees from Gaza since last year.
By comparison, Egypt has admitted roughly 4,000 patients and the United Arab Emirates around 13,000.
Downing Street confirmed to the British press that a cross-government task force is working to "urgently accelerate" the scheme.
A spokesperson for the British prime minister earlier said in June that patients would be assessed on a case-by-case basis, with the UK committed to "providing specialist care where it is the best option" while also supporting regional evacuations.
"This is a sensitive and complex process, and the wellbeing of patients and their families is our top priority," the spokesperson added.
The international debate over medical access for Palestinians has widened in recent days.
In a most recent instance, the US State Department paused all visitor visas for residents of Gaza while it reviews vetting procedures — a move criticised by US-based charity HEAL Palestine, which sponsors injured children for treatment abroad.
The group, which has flown wounded children to American hospitals on short-term visas, said the freeze would "jeopardise lives" and stressed that its programme was humanitarian in nature, funded by private donations and not linked to refugee resettlement as claimed by far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
