LONDON — The first group of sick and wounded children from Gaza is headed to Britain under a scheme allowing them to receive medical treatment, the UK’s Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in July that Britain would evacuate Gazan children for treatment, noting that most hospitals in the Palestinian territory are no longer functioning.
Israel has raided hospitals in Gaza throughout the war due to Hamas’s use of medical centers for its military operations. The terror group has also periodically hidden some of the hostages kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023, inside the Strip’s medical facilities. International law generally prohibits targeting hospitals during wartime, but hospitals can lose this protection if they are used for military purposes.
The British government has said its scheme is essential due to the lack of vital medicines and supplies in Gaza and medical workers being unable to do their jobs safely.
“We expect the children and their immediate family members to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks,” said a UK Health Ministry statement, noting that no flight details would be released “for operational security reasons.”
In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper on Friday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the first group of children “have left Gaza and are on the way… to the UK.”
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper (R) speaks with the Ukrainian president ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 12, 2025. (Valentyn Ogirenko / POOL / AFP)
The paper reported that the children are being cared for by medics in another country in the region, before coming to Britain for treatment.
A small number of injured Gazan children have already been brought to Britain under a private program, Project Pure Hope.
Ministers have not said how many children will arrive under the new scheme, with reports that the first cohort could include 30 to 50.
Authorities are also working to evacuate students who have places to study at British universities.
“It’s a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them actually leave Gaza and then also travel through other countries in order to be able to get to the UK,” Cooper told The Mirror.
“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.”
Students stand among tents at a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel camp set up on the campus of Queen Mary University of London, on May 14, 2024. (BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP / File)
Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 465. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
