Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that Britain will begin evacuating critically ill children from the Gaza Strip for urgent medical treatment in the UK, as aid agencies warn of severe famine and a collapsing humanitarian situation in the region.
Speaking, Sir Keir described the starvation facing Palestinians as absolutely horrifying and said the UK is taking immediate steps to assist the most vulnerable.
“We are urgently accelerating efforts to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance in bringing more Palestinian children to the UK for specialist medical treatment,” he said. “The British people are sickened by what is happening. The images of starvation and desperation in Gaza are utterly horrifying.”
The announcement follows warnings from the World Food Programme (WFP), which reported that one in three Gazans have gone without food for days. Malnutrition is rising rapidly, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of care, according to the agency.
As the crisis deepens, France, Germany, and the UK have called on Israel to lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the enclave. A group of 100 NGOs echoed those demands, describing a situation in which Palestinians are “wasting away” and even collapsing in the streets from hunger.
25% of children, pregnant women in Gaza now malnourished
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon in its military campaign, launched after the October 7 Hamas attacks. The group said that 25% of children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, and condemned the distribution efforts by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, warned: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”
According to the United Nations, over 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces near designated aid distribution sites. The Israeli military has denied intentionally targeting civilians and says it is investigating the reported deaths.
Sir Keir also reiterated calls for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and renewed his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including formal UK recognition of a Palestinian state.
“The denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people as well as children and babies is completely unjustifiable. So is the continued captivity of the hostages. And so is Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza,” the Prime Minister wrote.
