Government plans to bring more Gazan children to UK for treatment
A government spokesperson said on Sunday the plan was to "evacuate children from Gaza who require urgent medical care," adding "we are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible."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.A Foreign Affairs Committee report published at the end of July said the government had "declined to support a medical evacuation of critically injured children to the UK, involving coordinating travel permits, medical visas and safe transport to the UK, where the children can receive specialised care unavailable to them in Gaza".Following that, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was "urgently accelerating efforts" to evacuate children who needed critical medical assistance to the UK for treatment.According to the Sunday Times, the government scheme will require a parent or guardian to accompany each child, and the Home Office will carry out biometric and security checks before they travel.
Gazan boy first to be treated in UK for war injuriesGazan girls arrive in UK for medical treatment
Project Pure Hope, a British organisation which includes volunteer medical professionals, has so far brought three children to the UK for treatment.The most recent, 15-year-old Majd al-Shagnobi, arrived in the UK last week. He required complex facial reconstructive surgery after an Israeli tank shell destroyed his jaw when he was trying to access aid in February 2024. He was the first Palestinian child to be flown to the UK for treatment for war injuries.His evacuation was organised in conjunction with the US NGO, Kinder Relief, which has helped other children from Gaza get medical treatment abroad.His treatment, privately funded by Project Pure Hope, will begin at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in the coming days, carried out by a medical team who will all work for free.The organisation has been urging the government to establish a scheme similar to one created to treat Ukrainian refugees and welcomed the government's plan, saying it would be able to share its expertise from successful private evacuations.It said: "Our blueprint can help ensure the UK acts quickly and effectively, so that every child who needs urgent care has the best chance of survival and recovery."
In April, the group secured visas for two girls -13-year-old Rama and five-year-old Ghena - to have privately funded operations in the UK for life-long medical conditions.They were brought to London after being evacuated to Egypt from Gaza.Ghena has had laser surgery to relieve the pressure in her left eye, which she was at risk of losing. And Rama has had exploratory surgery for a serious bowel condition.Their mothers say both girls are doing well.
Medics have been warning of shortages in vital food and medical supplies for weeks, after Israel began a months-long blockade of all aid and goods into Gaza.This has since been partially lifted, but humanitarian agencies have said more aid must be allowed to enter to Gaza to prevent famine and malnutrition worsening.The Hamas-run health ministry said 175 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition.Israel denies it is deliberately blocking aid flowing into Gaza and accuses the UN and other aid agencies of failing to deliver it.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.Sir Keir said last week that the UK would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel took "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza" - a move Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "rewards Hamas's monstrous terrorism".
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.More than 60,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Child is rushed to hospital 'after falling from height' in Dagenham
A five-year old boy has been rushed to hospital after 'falling from a height' in Dagenham this afternoon. Paramedics rushed to the scene near Dagenham Headway Tube station in east London at 2.31pm. The child is understood to have fallen from a height and was taken to a major trauma centre following the incident.
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Boy, 5, rushed to hospital after plunging from a height as air ambulance responds & cops close street
A FIVE-year-old boy has fallen from a height and been rushed to a major trauma centre. Paramedics raced to the scene, nearby Dagenham Headway Tube station, in east London, at around 2.30pm today. Church Elm Lane was cordoned off from Tasty kebab shop to Church Elm Lane Health Centre. Emergency services, including an air ambulance, arrived to transport the youngster to a major trauma centre. It is understood the boy's injuries are not life threatening. The Met Police confirmed there have been no arrests. A spokesperson for the force said: "Police were called at 14:32hrs on Monday, 4 August to reports of a child who had fallen from height in Church Elm Lane, Dagenham Officers, the London Ambulance Service and the London Air Ambulance attended. "A five-year-old boy was taken to hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life threatening. There have been no arrests." A London Ambulance Service spokesperson added: "We were called at 2.31pm today to reports of a person fallen from height on Church Elm Lane, Dagenham. "We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and a paramedic in a fast response car. "We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance. "Our first paramedic arrived in less than five minutes. We treated a child at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre by road." 1
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
I found it agonising to quit smoking. So why are people ignoring the new treatments on offer?
If there was a five-minute nuclear warning, I'd run straight to my local shop and buy a pack of cigarettes. Even now, after all these years. I stopped more than a decade ago – note that I say 'stopped' rather than 'gave up' because the latter implies a sacrifice, and I have been brainwashed (OK, hypnotised) not to use the term. But you are never really a non-smoker. You are just a smoker who is currently not smoking. In your soul, you are forever one of the people who leave the table after eating to go and have a conversation outside, even if you physically stay put these days. So, as someone who found it difficult to quit, it's baffling to hear that although two stop-smoking medications have been available in the UK since 2024, only 0.2% of those attempting to give up have used them, according to an analysis of NHS data on smoking in England. Cytisine (which also goes by cytisinicline) is a plant-based product that has been used in eastern Europe since the 70s and may appeal to those who prefer a natural option over a synthetic drug. It mimics the effects of nicotine, and tricks your brain into thinking you've had a cigarette. Varenicline – withdrawn in 2021 over concerns about impurities, but now reformulated and rereleased – can apparently reduce the urge to smoke, make you enjoy it less when you do and ease withdrawal symptoms. I tried everything when it came to my struggle with Silk Cut. Patches, gum, lozenges – I carried on smoking while I wore, chewed and sucked them all. I read the world-famous success story The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr (no, not that one). I attended the NHS in-person sessions, three times, to no effect. I was a triple failure, and oddly proud of it for a reason I still don't quite understand. I had neurolinguistic programming, where the man shook my hand as he greeted me, asking, 'And how long was it that you smoked for?' 'Oh, I still smoke now. I just had one outside,' I volunteered cheerfully. He tutted and told me that for some clients, talking about smoking in the past tense like that was all it took. I scoffed at those weaklings as I walked to my train afterwards – in a cloud of smoke, obviously. The closest I came to victory back then was a hypnotist recommended by a friend, with the caveat that he sounded so much like Cliff Richard it was hard to take him seriously. She didn't mention that he worked out of an extremely insalubrious portable cabin at the back of a building site. As I knocked on the tin-can door (while simultaneously putting out yet another last ever cigarette), I reasoned that if he murdered me, I would technically have given up smoking, therefore this would have been a success. Reader, he did not murder me. In gentle, dulcet tones, he told me I felt sleepy, while I felt embarrassed for him because I definitely wasn't hypnotised. When he 'brought me round' he asked me how long I thought I'd 'been under'. I'd been thinking about what to have for dinner the whole time, so stifled a giggle as I told him: about 10 minutes. He replied that it had been two hours. The next morning, it occurred to me that I hadn't even thought about smoking, let alone done it. Thrilled, I sent another friend, who had the same experience. However, a year later, almost to the day, we both started smoking again. I went back for a do-over but it didn't work. In the end, I probably spent about as much on trying to stop smoking as I had on cigarettes, and the thing that finally worked was free: boring old willpower. It was agony. Personally, I would have bitten the doctor's hand off if they could have given me a treatment that worked. And while of course no treatment is 100% effective, as I found out, stopping smoking is hard and gruelling. The more options people have, and the more visible and accessible these options are, the better. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
