Hundreds of seriously sick children in Gaza are due to be airlifted to Britain for treatment on the NHS.
Under plans being drawn up by the Government – and set to be announced within weeks – at least 300 of the most poorly will receive medical help here.
This will happen “in parallel” with an initiative by Project Pure Hope, a group set up to bring sick and injured Gazan children to the UK privately for medical care.
It comes amid increasing pressure on Israel and Hamas to end the war and ease the suffering of 2.1 million Palestinians trapped inside the enclave.
A Government spokesman said: “We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care. We are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible, with further details to be set out in due course.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, and Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting are understood to have collaborated on the evacuation plan and details are expected to be officially released in the coming weeks.
Each child brought to the UK will be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and siblings, if necessary. Biometric and security checks will be carried out by the Home Office before they travel.
The world has watched in horror as sick and hungry families inside Gaza struggle to get aid and medical care in a deepening humanitarian crisis that has brought fierce censure from the UN and charities.
Experts say at least 600 truckloads of aid are required every day but just a fraction are being allowed in by Israel.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied this and accused Hamas of “stirring up a slanderous propaganda campaign”.
In a sickening heightening of the war of words Hamas released a video of Israeli hostage Evyatar David at the weekend in which he said he was “digging his own grave”.
Mr David, 24, is one of 49 hostages which Israel claims are still being held captive in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead.
During its murderous incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 back across the border as hostages.
The clip showed an emaciated Mr David, dressed only in shorts, clutching a shovel and digging a hole in a narrow subterranean tunnel.
Speaking in Hebrew he says: “What I’m doing now is digging my own grave. Every day my body becomes weaker and weaker. I am walking directly to my grave. There is the grave I am going to be buried in. Time is running out to be released and be able to sleep in bed with my family.”
Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza has led to severe shortages of food and other essentials, fuelling international demands for a ceasefire. UN-backed food security experts have said the “worst-case scenario of famine” is now playing out in Gaza.
It is thought that more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since war erupted, according to children’s charity Unicef.
Hamas – a proscribed terrorist group – has reiterated that it will not lay down its arms unless an independent Palestinian state was established. It said: “Armed resistance cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The UK government has followed France and said it was making plans to recognise a Palestinian state – only refraining if Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire and signs up to a long-term peace process over the next two months with the ultimate aim a peaceful two-state solution.
But the move has sparked anger and fear because it could see a Palestinian state recognised without Hamas relinquishing its weapons or releasing Israeli hostages.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK’s demands for Hamas to release all hostages and play no role in the future of Gaza are “absolute and unconditional”.
He said: “The UK position on recognition is part of a co-ordinated international effort. It must begin with an immediate ceasefire that frees the hostages and ends the agony of their families, and which lifts the inhumane aid restrictions.”