The first group of critically ill and injured Palestinian children set to receive NHS treatment have left Gaza and are expected to arrive in the UK in days.
They are the first children to be brought to the UK for treatment as part of a government operation being co-ordinated by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Home Office and Department of Health.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed the children had been evacuated from Gaza in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper.
A Foreign Office source told the BBC the report was correct and the children were due to arrive in the UK in the “coming days”.
The UK government is also working to evacuate students with places to study at British universities.
Cooper did not confirm how large the first group was but the BBC understands it contains between 30 and 50 Palestinian children.
Each child could be accompanied by family members if necessary, according to the Mirror.
Cooper told the newspaper “it was a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them actually leave Gaza”.
She added: “But that work is underway and I’m determined to make sure that we can do our bit to help those injured families and also to help students get into their courses this autumn.”
Some Gazan children have been brought privately to the UK for medical treatment through an initiative by Project Pure Hope, but the government until now had not evacuated any through its own scheme during the conflict.
On Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the bodies of 47 people killed by the Israeli military had arrived at its hospitals over the previous day.
Since UN-backed global food security experts confirmed a famine in Gaza City on 22 August, the ministry has reported that at least 142 people have died from starvation and malnutrition across the territory.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza had stretched the territory’s health system “beyond breaking point”.
Israel has said it is expanding its efforts to facilitate aid deliveries and has disputed the health ministry’s figures on malnutrition-related deaths.
The Israeli military launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 64,803 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
