The UK is facing legal action for refusing medical evacuations of critically ill children from Gaza, a stance campaigners say breaks with Britain’s past humanitarian responses.
The British government is facing legal action over its refusal to evacuate critically ill Palestinian children from Gaza, in a case that highlights what campaigners describe as a glaring inconsistency in UK policy towards victims of war.
According to a report by The Guardian, the legal challenge targets both the Foreign Office and the Home Office and has been filed on behalf of three seriously ill children trapped in Gaza.
Lawyers argue that British ministers have ignored the complete collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system and failed to offer the same life-saving opportunities they extended to children in conflicts such as Bosnia and Ukraine.
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The case is reportedly being brought by the law firm Leigh Day, with legal lead Carolin Ott describing the UK’s current position as “profoundly inadequate” in the face of urgent medical needs. The charity Children Not Numbers is supporting the legal action.
The three children — two siblings suffering from kidney failure and a toddler with a life-threatening vascular condition — are in dire need of treatment that is not accessible in Gaza. Campaigners are calling for a dedicated medical evacuation program and a special immigration route to the UK, similar to schemes activated in past conflicts.
Data from the World Health Organization indicates that as many as 12,500 patients in Gaza require medical evacuation. Yet, while thousands have been transferred to Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Europe, and the US, the UK remains absent from this list. As of May, the UK had only admitted two children for privately funded treatment under Project Pure Hope, refusing calls to establish a government-sponsored program.
Despite calls from humanitarian groups like Médecins Sans Frontières to expand patient evacuations, British officials have defended their response, citing £7.5 million in regional medical aid and the treatment of over half a million Palestinians through field hospitals and medical supplies.
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Political pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is also mounting. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney wrote to Starmer earlier this month offering to treat injured children from Gaza within the Scottish NHS, but has yet to receive a response.
The UK government has until July 28 to respond to the legal action.
Since October 7, over 58,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including more than 17,000 children, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
(PC, The Guardian)
Stermer & his “Israeli” lobbyists are counting those days until July 28, counting the deaths of children, women, and men – priority order – and then kick the can again and again. Well, it appears Stermer, Macron, and Merze are too busy snorting cocaine to really address starving, dying … Was the coke a gift of “Israel”?