Meet the only two children from Gaza allowed into the UK for medical treatment

Rana Qudieh and Haneen Abed have been baking: feteer meshaltet, layers of filo pastry in a flaky, squidgy pancake, slathered with honey. The two women have known each other for barely two months but are united by their desire to offer proper Palestinian hospitality within their temporary home in north London.

- James Tapper

Guests first, then children. Three girls tuck into slices of feteer - Qudieh's daughter Rama, a 13-year-old with a lifelong bowel condition, Abed's five-year-old, Ghena, who has a congenital condition in her left eye, and her 12-year-old sister, Hala.

The families arrived in London at the end of April, the first - and, so far, only - children from Gaza to be given visas for medical treatment in the UK since the war began in October 2023. Ghena has had a successful operation at Great Ormond Street hospital to relieve the fluid pressing on her optic nerve, although she will need regular medical treatment for the rest of her life. Rama has a gastrointestinal problem in her colon, but doctors are still investigating: after arriving in the UK, she was put under general anaesthetic so surgeons could take a biopsy.

Cases such as these are impossible to treat in Gaza, where many of the hospitals have been destroyed and a lack of supplies means treatment is limited to the most urgent cases. Project Pure Hope, a humanitarian initiative led by Dr Farzana Rahman and Omar Din, has raised £1.5m to cover the cost of the children's evacuation from Gaza, their accommodation and private treatment.

It has "given Rama a new life," her mother says in Arabic, her words relayed by an interpreter, "because her life in Gaza was completely non-existent. I didn't expect her to get treatment, or for her to live a long life."

Project Pure Hope has funding to help many more children, Din says. It has been given approval for one more to come to the UK in the coming weeks, but no others. "We're asking the government to help us bring more children over, ideally a cohort, rather than us having to seek permission for each individual child."