The UK Home Office is blocking evacuation of Palestinian women and children

Dozens of Palestinian women and children have had their evacuation suspended by the UK Home Office, despite the Foreign Office stating it is ready to free them from the war-torn region.

This follows the suspension of the family reunion application pathway for asylum seekers, announced by the Home Office in September 2025. They claimed more restrictive rules would be announced in spring 2026, however no such announcement has been made.

Dozens of Palestinian women and children have had their evacuation suspended by the UK Home Office

At present, the Home Office and Foreign Office work together to evacuate Palestinian families from Gaza via Jordan. But once the evacuees arrive in Jordan, the Home Office is not providing them with the required onward travel assurance (OTA) needed to get them to the UK safely. According to one report, the Home Office is using legal challenges to block evacuated families from coming to the UK, with senior barristers assigned to fight against individual cases.

One legal argument used by the Home Office to prevent the evacuations is that Palestinian women and children could pose a security threat because they come from a “territory where terrorists operate”, despite some refugees in the UK being granted leave to remain on the basis of persecution by Hamas in Gaza.

The families’ lawyers claim the Home Office is taking a harsher line with Palestinian families than with refugees from other countries hoping to reunite with loved ones in the UK. In Bassem Abudagga’s case, his wife and two young children continue to endure life-threatening, insanitary conditions in Gaza, but Home Office officials claim the evidence of their circumstances is neither compelling nor urgent enough to warrant evacuation.

The families’ lawyers claim the Home Office is taking a harsher line with Palestinian families

As of February 2026, the UK Government has 395 active trade licences with Israel, of which 203 are for military use. The total value of these licenses amounted to £130 million.

In July 2026, the UK Government announced that it would begin funding an UN-coordinated recovery plan in Palestine, to the tune of £10 million. This is but a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of rebuilding a safe and secure Palestine; not to mention the staggering cost in human life.

1.7 million Palestinians remain in overcrowded displacement sites across Gaza, without access to food, medicine, or clean water. There are no fully functioning hospitals across the entire region.

Over 1000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the peace plan was agreed in September 2025.

For Palestine to fully recover, the UK Government could transfer profits to the UN’s recovery plan as reparations for any damage caused as a repercussion of UK-Israeli trade licenses.

By Natalie Willetts 

Research Consultant

Natalie Willetts Research & Writing Services: www.nataliewilletts.com