Group of Gazan children to come to the UK for medical treatment

But the BBC also reported that some of those brought to the UK may subsequently be unable to return to Gaza and enter the asylum system instead.

Some Gazan children have already received medical treatment in the UK privately after being evacuated by Project Pure Hope (PPH). However, this is the first time the government will be directly involved in the transport and provide the treatment on the NHS.

It comes after a political row was sparked in February when a British judge allowed a Gazan family to live in the UK, despite applying through a scheme intended specifically for Ukrainians.

The family of six – two parents and four children – applied to the Ukraine Family Scheme, set up by the government shortly after the Russian invasion, that allowed Ukrainian nationals to join family members or extend their stay in the UK.

Despite not being Ukrainian, the family – who claimed that their home was destroyed in an Israeli air strike – said there was a “compelling and compassionate” case for their application be granted.

They were initially refused by a lower-tier immigration tribunal, but this was overturned on appeal, with the judge citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In making his decision, Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor said that the family was in an “extreme and life-threatening” situation.

But the ruling was criticised by senior politicians, including the prime minister, who called it “the wrong decision”.

And, in May, the government unveiled a white paper on immigration, which included a pledge to “clarify Article 8 rules and set out how they should apply in different immigration routes so that fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional’,” and “set out when and how a person can genuinely make a claim on the basis of exceptional circumstances”.