The first group of children from Gaza have arrived in the UK for specialist life-saving treatment on the NHS, the Guardian understands.
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, informed the parliamentary Labour party on Monday evening about the news. On arrival in the UK, the patients and their families have been granted access to NHS treatment, appropriate housing and comprehensive support services for an initial two-year period.
They are the first children to be brought to the UK for treatment as part of a government operation being coordinated by the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Between 30 and 50 young Palestinians are expected to be treated, while two critically ill children and their families arrived in Scotland for treatment, according to Holyrood.
Cooper told the Mirror newspaper at the weekend that “it was a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them actually leave Gaza”.
She added: “But that work is under way 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.”
Neil Gray, the Scottish health secretary, said the Scottish government had committed to supporting the treatment of up to 20 Palestinian youngsters who are expected to arrive in Scotland in the coming weeks.
Gray, the SNP MSP for Airdrie & Shotts, said: “This initial support is a small step towards restoring some humanity to the catastrophic situation in Gaza as a result of the Israeli government’s actions.”
Gray added the Scottish government had been working closely with the health boards that will be treating patients and the local authorities that will accommodate their families to ensure they have somewhere to live and receive the “essential support they need”.
The UK government is also working to evacuate students with places to study at British universities.
Some Palestinian children have been brought privately to the UK for medical treatment through an initiative by Project Pure Hope, a humanitarian initiative founded by a group of senior doctors and healthcare leaders.
Since UN-backed global food security experts declared a famine in Gaza City on 22 August, the territory’s health ministry reported that at least 142 people have died from starvation and malnutrition.
More than 50,000 children are estimated to have been killed or injured in Gaza by Israeli forces since the attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023, according to the charity Unicef.
