NHS to ‘treat hundreds of sick children from Gaza’

Hundreds of seriously ill children from Gaza will be evacuated to the UK for treatment by the NHS, as part of a new plan due to be announced within weeks, according to a report.

- ALEX CROFT

Up to 300 young people will enter the UK for free medical care, a scheme which will run in parallel with another similar operation run by the Project Pure Hope group, a senior Whitehall source told The Times.

Since the war began in October 2023, only three children from Gaza have been issued medical visas for the UK, under the Project Pure Hope scheme, which is funded entirely by private donations.

The news comes amid a starvation crisis in the ravaged Gaza Strip, where partial and complete Israeli blockades on aid have been behind more than 160 malnutrition-related deaths, including 92 children, health authorities in Gaza say.

Ted Chaiban, Unicef’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said on Friday that more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition, after a recent trip to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.