LONDON

The British government said Thursday that "a small number of children" from the Gaza Strip entered the UK for the first time to receive urgent medical care.

The Foreign Office said the sick and wounded were allowed to temporarily leave Gaza for treatment.

"The healthcare system in Gaza is near collapse. Aid supplies must be allowed in, medical workers protected," it wrote on X.

Quoting the Foreign Office post, Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, said he was delighted to support an initiative by Project Pure Hope "to bring a small number of children from Gaza to the UK for privately funded medical care."

"The scale of suffering is huge: we’re announcing funding for @WHO, Egypt, @UKMed and @UNOCHA to treat those in the region," he added, referencing the World Health Organization, a UK medical charity and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Sky News, meanwhile, reported that two Gazan children arrived at London Heathrow Airport on an evening flight from Cairo.

Israel has closed Gaza's crossings since March 2, blocking essential supplies from entering the enclave despite multiple reports of famine in the war-devastated territory.

The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

More than 52,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.​​​​​​​