Bring sick and injured children to UK from Gaza immediately, MPs say

A cross-party group of MPs has written to the government urging them to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK "without delay" for treatment.

In a letter to senior ministers, 96 MPs stressed children are at risk of imminent death and any barriers to their evacuation should be lifted.

They warn the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip has been "decimated" and have requested a timeline of evacuations, as well as adequate funding.

More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured since the war in Gaza begun in October 2023, according to the UN charity Unicef.

The letter, co-ordinated by the Labour MP and GP Dr Simon Opher, said essential infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed, and a long "blockade" of food, water and medical supplies and the ongoing violence has led to a medical and humanitarian catastrophe of "horrific proportion".

Addressing the Health, Home and Foreign secretaries, the letter's signatories said they were working with medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders, also known as MSF) to speed up the process of bringing children with trauma injuries or serious existing conditions to the UK.

In the letter, the MPs say evacuations must be "solely based on clinical necessity and individual case assessment", without regard to political, reputational, or financial interests.

The letter also calls for children and their families to have the option of claiming asylum, or resettling, in the UK once treatment is completed.

Previously, the Home Office had said that biometric checks would be carried out before children and carers travel - but in the letter MPs questioned the practicality of such checks in advance of evacuation.

Earlier this month the government said plans to evacuate seriously ill or injured children from Gaza and bring them to the UK for medical treatment were being carried out "at pace".

No figure has been put on the number to be evacuated but it is estimated to be around a few hundred.

Since the start of the war, the UK has provided funds so that injured Gazans can be treated by hospitals in the region, and has also been working with Jordan to airdrop aid into the territory and has demanded Israel allow more aid to enter via land routes.

A government spokesperson said: "We are accelerating plans to evacuate children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care".

A cross-party "taskforce" is working to pull the scheme together, they added.

Liz Harding of MSF UK told the BBC she welcomed the letter.

The UK must "urgently act on its commitment by creating a dedicated, publicly funded pathway based on clinical need, not bureaucracy," she said.

She added the UK's biometrics visa requirements must be waived.

"Every delay costs lives".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged territory.

On Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population.

Israel strongly rejects the accusations, saying its forces target terrorists and never civilians, and claims that Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza.

More than 60,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.