London — After months of silence and bureaucratic inertia, the UK government has announced plans to evacuate more than 100 gravely wounded and ill children from Gaza for urgent medical care under the National Health Service (NHS). The move follows intensifying international condemnation over the West’s indifference to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where hospitals have collapsed and children are dying in squalor.
The British plan, though long overdue, is being promoted as a humanitarian breakthrough. It allows each child to be accompanied by a guardian—and possibly siblings—and comes after only three children had previously been flown to the UK via private charity funds. Rights organizations call this a “shamefully small gesture” compared to the scale of devastation inflicted by Israeli bombardment and supported by the US and its NATO allies.
“We welcome the UK’s step,” said Dr. Munir Al-Khatib of Children Not Numbers, “but the reality is many of the children on our evacuation list have already died while London hesitated.” According to the group, 71 children who they once hoped to evacuate are now in graves. The World Health Organization estimates that 12,000 Palestinians, half of them children, remain in urgent need of evacuation—many with war injuries, cancer, or advanced infections worsened by starvation.
British officials have formed a joint task force with the Foreign Office, Home Office, and NHS to streamline visa and entry processes for these minors. However, this logistical gesture has sparked accusations of moral hypocrisy, as the UK continues to sell arms to Israel while airlifting its victims under headlines of compassion.
The new evacuation scheme borrows heavily from a pilot model developed by Project Pure Hope (PPH), a UK-based charity that has already evacuated three children. Yet even this privately funded mission was only authorized after immense pressure from British Palestinians, healthcare workers, and human rights campaigners who accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of deliberate foot-dragging to avoid offending Tel Aviv and Washington.
Legal threats and grassroots pressure appear to have forced Downing Street’s hand. Just weeks ago, the UK faced mounting lawsuits accusing it of violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by refusing to provide asylum or medical relief to Gaza’s most vulnerable.
Gaza’s healthcare system has completely disintegrated amid months of indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes and a medieval-style blockade that has cut off electricity, food, and medicine. Entire hospital wings have turned into morgues, while children with amputated limbs, burns, and shrapnel wounds lie untreated, many in open-air tents or rubble.
Despite widespread calls, there is still no UK-led push to end Israel’s siege or demand accountability for its war crimes. Critics argue that evacuating children without confronting the root cause, Israel’s military occupation and Western complicity, is a performative half-measure.
For its part, Israel has consistently obstructed medical evacuations and aid flows, turning the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into tools of collective punishment. Palestinian families describe the evacuation process as Kafkaesque: permits delayed, names rejected, and children dying while paperwork awaits Israeli approval.
The contrast with other nations is glaring. Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, and several European countries have already evacuated more than 7,000 Gazans, many of them children. Until now, the UK’s official count stood at just three.
Humanitarian groups warn that even this latest pledge risks being hollow unless executed rapidly. “We don’t need promises, we need planes,” said Amal Hussein, a Palestinian nurse coordinating with foreign NGOs. “Children don’t survive on British press releases.”
The full evacuation process is expected to begin within weeks, with the first batch of children currently awaiting safe passage through the Rafah crossing, which remains under tight Israeli control. Whether London’s gesture amounts to a genuine policy shift or a symbolic PR move remains to be seen.
According to The Guardian, the UK government confirmed on August 5 that more than 100 wounded and critically ill children from Gaza would be evacuated for NHS care, after mounting pressure from legal and humanitarian groups demanding immediate action amid catastrophic health conditions in the besieged strip.
