Gaza child patients meet UK Prime Minister to ask to be reunited with families

Fifty children have travelled from Gaza to Britain for medical treatment since September

Two Palestinian children who have been treated in the UK, plus siblings, arrive at Downing Street to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Photo: Ofrah Muflahi

Two children evacuated from Gaza to undergo medical treatment have met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as campaigners called for more Palestinian children to be allowed into the country to receive care.

The two boys, Mahmoud and Obeida, are among 50 children who in September were taken from Gaza to the UK, where they are being treated through the National Health Service. Their evacuation came after more than 18 months of campaigning by medical associations operating in the enclave. Dozens of children have also been taken in by countries in Europe and the Gulf.

Mahmoud, 12, suffers from kidney stenosis, a serious condition that causes high blood pressure and puts pressure on his heart. He was readmitted to hospital last week, said Ofrah Muflahi, director of the British Arab Nursing and Midwifery Association, who accompanied the children on Monday.

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The UK has said it will allow children to travel from Gaza with immediate family members, but campaigners say some were left behind.

Mahmoud's mother was unable to go with him to the UK because she is caring for his siblings in Gaza. “Mahmoud's mother is not with him. He will have surgery soon. He has to live with a long-term condition without his mother,” Ms Muflahi told The National. She said she hoped Mr Starmer would listen to Mahmoud and help ensure his mother and siblings can travel to the UK.

Obeida, 16, was sleeping in a tent when he was injured in a missile strike, losing a foot and an arm above the elbow. He has come to the UK for treatment and rehabilitation. But he is “struggling psychologically” to adapt to being unable to play football like before, Ms Muflahi said.

While his mother and younger siblings are in the UK with him, Obeida would like support with his disability from his father, who stayed behind in Gaza. The Prime Minister told the children he would do his best to help them, Ms Muflahi said.

The children and campaigners presented a letter to Mr Starmer on Monday that called for more sick children to be taken to the UK. The government declined to give a figure on the number of children it would evacuate from Gaza, but leaked reports initially suggested it could be up to 300. Fifty children have arrived in the UK so far, Ms Muflahi said.

“We would really like to see this expedited. There thousands of children in Gaza in need of care,” she added.

The British government was previously accused by campaigners of acting too slowly to take in injured Palestinian children, by not expediting their visa applications and failing to waive the requirement for biometric data, which is impossible to submit from Gaza.

But the UK is the only country in Europe to allow children in need of treatment to bring more than one family member with them, campaigners said.

Meanwhile, the government is seeking to curb attempts by British Palestinians to bring their families in Gaza into the UK. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud recently won an appeal that could prevent families from Gaza from entering the UK through a scheme initially devised for displaced Ukrainians – but which is the only official pathway for people fleeing war zones.

The need to have the children process their biometrics in Jordan has meant it took longer for them to arrive to the UK, and also that the more severe or urgent cases would need to be treated elsewhere first.

Doctors involved in the medical evacuations previously told The National how a two-year-old suffering from severe burns was among two infants evacuated to Italy in May, after the UK had taken too long to respond to the evacuation requests.