UK faces legal action for denying Gaza children medical evacuation

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
19 Jul 2025 22:56
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Lawyers argue the UK government is failing its humanitarian obligations by refusing to evacuate Gaza’s critically injured children amid a collapsing health system due to Israeli genocide.

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Three-year-old Amr al-Hams, who has brain damage caused by an Israeli strike on his family's tent in April, lies in a bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 (AP)

The UK government is facing a legal challenge for its refusal to medically evacuate critically ill Palestinian children from Gaza, despite having organized similar humanitarian efforts in past wars, such as Ukraine. The case, filed on behalf of three gravely ill children, questions the role of both the Foreign Office and the Home Office in failing to act amid what legal experts call a life-threatening medical crisis.

According to The Guardian, the case is being led by Carolin Ott of the human rights law firm Leigh Day. Ott argued that British ministers “have failed to take into account the lack of treatment options for children in the territory” before denying medical evacuation requests. “These mechanisms are profoundly inadequate to meet the urgent needs of children in Gaza,” she added.

The children at the center of the case are aged two and five. One, referred to as Child Y, is a two-year-old with an arteriovenous malformation in the cheek, a rare condition causing frequent bleeding and leaving him in critical condition. The other two, siblings known as Child S, suffer from advanced kidney disease (cystinosis nephropathy), with one now unable to walk and both potentially requiring organ transplants.

Call for emergency evacuation route

Human rights groups and medical campaigners are urging the UK government to establish a special immigration route to allow emergency evacuations of children requiring life-saving treatment not available in Gaza. Despite repeated appeals, the UK has not yet agreed to take in any of the roughly 12,500 Palestinians estimated by the World Health Organization to require urgent medical evacuation.

As of April 10, only 7,229 patients had been evacuated from Gaza to other countries, including Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, the EU, and the US. Nearly 5,000 of those evacuees were children.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has been coordinating evacuations under increasingly difficult conditions, has managed to relocate only 22 patients so far. MSF's medical evacuation coordinator in Gaza, Dr. Hani Isleem, said many countries have been reluctant to accept patients out of fear they would be seen as enabling “forced migration” or taking on long-term humanitarian obligations.

Government response cites aid and field hospitals

A UK government spokesperson defended Britain’s record, stating that London has supported medical care for over 500,000 Palestinians through the provision of field hospitals and aid supplies. In May, the UK pledged a £7.5 million humanitarian package to support healthcare in Gaza and surrounding regions.

The government also referenced Project Pure Hope, a privately funded charity through which two Palestinian children were recently brought to the UK for treatment. These were the first such admissions since the war escalated. However, according to legal filings, the charity’s formal proposal for a government-funded UK–Gaza medical corridor was rejected.

“We have helped several children with complex paediatric conditions access privately funded medical care in the UK,” the spokesperson said. “We have been clear the situation in Gaza is intolerable and that there must be an immediate ceasefire.”

The statement also called on "Israel" to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and to allow Gaza’s sick and wounded to leave for treatment, stressing that access to healthcare is a basic human right.

Mounting pressure ahead of the deadline

The UK government has until 28 July to respond to the pre-action letter submitted by Leigh Day. Advocates for the children say the time for debate has passed and that immediate action is required to save lives.

“This is not a question of policy, it’s a question of humanity,” one campaigner said. “Children in Gaza are dying not just from bombs, but from treatable illnesses. If the UK has the ability to help, then it has the responsibility to act.”

As legal and moral pressure intensifies, critics argue that Britain’s inaction on Gaza’s medical crisis risks aligning it with a broader policy of neglect toward Palestinians trapped under Israeli blockade.