“I am proud that the UK is offering lifesaving medical care to these Ukrainian children, who have been forced out of their home country by the Russian invasion while undergoing medical treatment,” Sajid Javid, then the UK health secretary, said in March 2022.
Within weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the UK government had facilitated the evacuation of 21 Ukrainian children with cancer, and coordinated their treatment through the National Health Service (NHS).
In contrast, last week – after 17 months of persistent lobbying – only two children from Gaza were finally permitted to enter the UK for medical treatment.
They were chosen not because they are among those most severely injured by Israel’s onslaught in Gaza; quite the opposite. Their diagnoses appear more politically neutral, involving congenital conditions not directly related to Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza.
Behind what some might frame as a triumph of British humanitarianism lies a much darker reality. These are the only two Palestinian children in need of medical care that the UK government has agreed to receive since Israel accelerated its assault on Gaza in October 2023.
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Their care hasn’t been coordinated by the Foreign Office, nor will it be provided by the NHS. Rather, their treatment was arranged privately, funded entirely by donations and facilitated by a coalition of doctors, lawyers and volunteers through the NGO Project Pure Hope.
The UK government hasn’t just failed to help; it has actively blocked efforts to transfer severely injured children – those with blast wounds, amputations and burns – to UK hospitals for essential treatment.
Political obstruction
Officials from both the Home Office and Foreign Office have consistently denied visas, citing supposed logistical, medical or security reasons. These excuses collapse under minimal scrutiny, since we know that the UK government has rightly facilitated the transfer and treatment of children from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan in recent years.
These obstructions remained, despite the readiness of several UK hospitals. Major paediatric centres in London, Birmingham and Manchester have offered to provide world-class care in trauma, orthopaedics, plastic surgery and rehabilitation. Surgeons and other specialists have volunteered, charitable funding has been secured – and still the UK government has stood in the way.
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Even Conservative peer Baroness Arminka Helic condemned the UK government’s inaction, calling it a clear case of “double standards”.
This isn’t a bureaucratic failure; it’s overt political obstruction. Of the tens of thousands of children wounded by Israeli military violence in Gaza, all have been excluded, while a couple of children whose medical conditions were less likely to raise uncomfortable questions about Israel’s indiscriminate attacks were eventually admitted.
To admit just two children, while the UK continues to support Israel’s violence in Gaza, is not an act of compassion. It is tokenism aiming to distract from the UK government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, and from its political and legal responsibilities.
Why are injured children from Gaza being denied treatment in British hospitals? The answer is now clear: because their wounds carry political weight
Since the care of these wounded children would be paid for by charities, the UK’s refusal to issue visas amounts to a political blockade on access to treatment. By withholding paperwork, the British government leaves these children with untreated injuries and wounds – in some cases with fatal consequences.
As far as we are aware, there was no official response from the government as of yet.
In such situations, we often assume moral cowardice. But the deeper, more disturbing truth appears to be a form of depraved agreement; a belief that Palestinian children are less deserving of care, and that the provision of assistance would undermine the collusion of many states in the suffering inflicted upon Palestinians. This is the consequence of decades of dehumanisation and anti-Palestinian racism.
This is not humanitarianism. It is the humanitarian alibi in full force; a superficial performance of care that distracts from political responsibilities and true accountability.
Health system collapsed
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health system collapsed in October 2023 and has never been able to recover. More than 18,000 children have been killed. Thousands more are living with catastrophic injuries – without access to antibiotics, anaesthesia, surgical care, or even food, as Israel’s total blockade and forced starvation now compound their suffering.
Still, the barriers remain in place. In February 2024, then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron told parliament that the UK was ready to help medically vulnerable children. Encouraged by this, charities submitted visa applications. One was for a child with a double lower-limb amputation, accepted by a UK hospital and fully funded.
The government ignored it. No reply came. Then, on 13 May 2024 – two months after the submission – a Home Office minister told parliament that no such applications had been received, but that any future applications would be treated seriously.
First children from Gaza arrive in UK for medical treatment after 17-month struggle
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The Home Office told ITV News that applications are only judged as submitted when a child or their parents travel to a visa application centre for passport and visa checks. This is impossible for families in genocide-afflicted Gaza.
As a coalition of doctors with direct experience working alongside our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza’s hospitals during the genocide – along with colleagues advocating from the UK – we have seen just how far the government has gone to deflect responsibility. Every part of the evacuation process – permits, escorts, transport, surgery – has been managed by civil society groups and volunteers. The government has not contributed a single pound.
And yet, in public, British politicians attempt to maintain the facade of compassion. In February 2024, a UK newspaper asked: why are injured children from Gaza being denied treatment in British hospitals? The answer is now clear: because their wounds carry political weight. Because allowing them into the country would exposes the UK’s passive inaction and active complicity. Because their suffering is inconvenient.
Children’s lives should never be politicised, but this is the reality for all Palestinian children. Two were permitted into the UK – not because they were the most in need, but because they posed no threat to the western narrative. In doing so, the UK government made its humanitarian red lines brutally clear – and showed us exactly who it deems worthy of care.
Everyone except Palestinians.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
