Palestinian Girl Receives UK Medical Care After Gaza Attack
A 10-year-old Palestinian girl, who suffered severe injuries including the loss of her arm during Israel's bombardment of Gaza, has arrived in the United Kingdom for critical medical treatment. Mariam Sabbah landed at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday with her mother, Fatma Salman, and two brothers, greeted by supporters with gifts and balloons.
Visa Denial and Evacuation Journey
The family's journey to London followed a setback when the United States denied their visitor visa application last August, as part of a broader Trump administration ban on visas for all Palestinians. Originally hoping to seek treatment in the US, they instead travelled from Egypt to the UK after medical charity Project Pure Hope identified Mariam as a candidate for evacuation.
Mariam is among more than 11,000 patients evacuated from Gaza since October 2023, according to United Nations data. However, over 18,500 patients, including approximately 3,800 children, still require urgent medical evacuation for life-saving treatments unavailable in the war-torn region.
Traumatic Injury and Failed Surgery
In March of last year, an Israeli missile struck Mariam's home in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, during early morning hours. The attack caused critical abdominal and pelvic injuries and severed her left arm. Awakened by heavy shelling, she ran toward her parents' bedroom when part of the staircase collapsed, trapping her beneath rubble.
Rescuers and family members worked for three hours to free her and transport her to Al-Aqsa Hospital, one of the few functioning medical facilities in Gaza at the time. Surgeons located her missing arm, preserved by cold weather, and performed a five-hour procedure to reattach it by reconnecting blood vessels and nerves.
Tragically, an infection developed post-operation due to exposure to debris, dust, and explosive residue, forcing medical staff to amputate the limb.
Gaza's Child Amputee Crisis
Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita globally, according to UNRWA, with up to 4,000 amputations recorded since October 2023. This equates to more than 10 children losing limbs every single day, underscoring the devastating human toll of the conflict.
Charity and Government Response
Medical charity FAJR Global, based in the US, evacuated Mariam from Gaza to Egypt and sought specialist care. She requires limb lengthening, a custom prosthesis, and advanced paediatric reconstructive surgery for her pelvic injuries. After the US visa denial, Project Pure Hope arranged privately funded specialist care through a network of UK paediatric hospitals.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in July that the UK would evacuate children in urgent need of medical care from Gaza to receive treatment in NHS hospitals. A government spokesperson noted that 50 children and their families arrived from Gaza in autumn 2025, receiving quality care through NHS and local authority efforts.
The spokesperson added, "The UK also supports Project Pure Hope's initiative to bring a small number of children from Gaza to the UK for privately funded specialist care. Following the ceasefire, now is the time to scale up aid and ensure much needed medicines and medical supplies are getting into Gaza."
Charity's Call to Action
Raza Halim, Co-Founder of Project Pure Hope, emphasized the ongoing need for support, stating, "We cannot forget the children of Gaza. PPH undertook the first medical evacuation of children from Gaza. We showed it can be done, and established the pathway for future evacuations which formed the blueprint for the Government medevac scheme."
He continued, "All of our work, and the British public's overwhelming reaction to it, has shown that there is an intense desire to continue to help the most vulnerable and dispossessed in this world. We have to meet the moment. We cannot let up."
