Britain to help evacuate nine scholarship students from Gaza

Nine students in Gaza who have scholarship offers from British universities have been told the UK will attempt to evacuate them so they can begin their studies, it has been reported.

The students have all been awarded Chevening scholarships, a global programme funded by the Foreign Office.

They were told on Tuesday that they would be helped by the Home Office and Foreign Office to come to the UK in the coming weeks, The Times reported.

The scholarship supports one-year Masters’ degrees for students with demonstrable potential to become future leaders, decision-makers and opinion formers.

The nine students have offers from the LSE, University College London, King’s College London, Queen Mary University, and Greenwich, Portsmouth, Warwick and Glasgow universities.

The breakthrough follows months of advocacy and campaigning by more than 100 MPs, university leaders and other civil society organisations. More than 80 Palestinian students in total have offers at UK universities, including 40 who have secured full scholarships.

Dr Nora Parr, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who has been part of coordinating efforts said the news was received with “mixed emotions”.

“On the one hand, relief that indeed there is a shared sense of the importance and urgency of the students’ situation – and on the other our hearts sank. What about the rest? We must believe that this is only a start,” the Guardian quoted her as saying.

More than 100 MPs, university leaders and other civil society organisations have been campaigning on behalf of more than 80 Palestinian students with offers.

Some are due to start on 1 September but have faced visa problems.

Dr Parr warned many of the student lived in “dire precarity” and that time was running out for them to start their courses.

Earlier this month Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was “urgently accelerating” efforts to evacuate children needing critical medical help. “The images of starvation and desperation in Gaza are utterly horrifying,” he told the Mirror at the time.

Last month, a cross-party group of 96 MPs wrote a letter to the government urging them to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK, warning that they are at risk of imminent death due to the “decimation” of the healthcare system.

Earlier this week a No. 10 spokesperson said: “We continue to take all those plans to evacuate more children from Gaza, who require urgent medical care in the UK and specialist treatment.”

A government spokesperson said it was working urgently to support Chevening scholars in Gaza.

“We are doing everything we can to support their safe exit and onward travel to the UK but the situation on the ground in Gaza makes this extremely challenging,” the Guardian quoted the spokesperson as saying.