First group of Gazan children headed to UK for medical treatment in coming weeks

London: A first group of sick and wounded children from Gaza are headed to Britain under a program allowing them to receive medical treatment, the UK’s health ministry confirms.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in July that Britain will evacuate Gazan children for treatment, noting most hospitals in the Palestinian territory are no longer functioning.

The government has said the project is essential due to the lack of vital medicines and supplies in Gaza and medical workers being unable to do their jobs safely.

“We expect the children and their immediate family members to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks,” says a health ministry statement, noting that no flight details would be released “for operational security reasons.”

In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper on Friday, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the first group of children “have left Gaza and are on the way… to the UK.”

The paper reported that the children are being cared for by medics in another country in the region, before coming to Britain for treatment.

A small number of injured Gazan children have already been brought to Britain under a private program, Project Pure Hope.

Ministers have not said how many children will arrive under the new program, with reports that the first cohort could comprise 30 to 50.

Authorities are also working to evacuate students with places to study at British universities.

“It’s a lot of diplomatic work in order to help them actually leave Gaza and then also travel through other countries in order to be able to get to the UK,” Cooper told The Mirror.

“But that work is underway and I’m determined to make sure that we can do our bit to help those injured families and also to help students get into their courses this autumn.”