Palestinian family in Gaza ask UK court for help to join relative

Palestinian family in Gaza ask UK court for help to join relative
Protesters hold placards and wave Palestinian flags as they walk over Westminster Bridge with the Palace of Westminster, home of the Houses of Parliament behind during a 'March For Palestine' in London on October 28, 2023. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 09 July 2025

Palestinian family in Gaza ask UK court for help to join relative

Palestinian family in Gaza ask UK court for help to join relative
  • Family of six have been granted leave to join relative in UK
  • Lawyers say three children fired upon when accessing aid

LONDON: A Palestinian family of six who are stuck in Gaza despite having permission to join a relative in Britain asked London’s High Court on Wednesday to make officials reconsider their refusal to ask Israel for help to leave the enclave.
Lawyers representing a Palestinian couple and their four children said the family were given leave to enter the United Kingdom to join the family member, who is a British citizen.
A London tribunal ruled earlier this year that the family should be permitted to enter the UK, in a decision which was publicly criticized by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch in February.
But the family’s lawyers say Britain’s foreign ministry is refusing to provide assistance because it will not ask Israel whether the family can leave Gaza to provide the biometric data needed to travel to Britain, as there is no operating visa center in Gaza.
Tim Owen, a lawyer representing the family, said they were asking the High Court to order the foreign office to reconsider its decision.
Owen said in court filings that three of the family’s four children had recently been fired upon when attempting to access aid, with one of the children also having been struck in the wrist by shrapnel from a tank shell.
He told the court that there was a “consular-level process which has been established by Israel” in order to evacuate people from Gaza, but that the foreign office “have not even made the request.”
The foreign office, however, says evacuating citizens from Gaza is incredibly complex and that Britain can only offer support in exceptional circumstances.
The department’s lawyer Julian Milford told the court that the foreign office was aware of 10 people in Gaza with unconditional leave to enter Britain and a further 28 with permission, subject to biometric checks.
Milford cited evidence from a department official urging caution over the “expenditure of political and diplomatic capital with Israel and others” in relation to such cases.
The family’s lawyers say they were, like nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, displaced by the conflict which began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory war has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. (Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alison Williams)


Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9
Updated 6 sec ago

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9
  • Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site later Wednesday morning to begin the process of finding out what went wrong
  • Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said nine dead people had been found at the scene of the crash

KENTUCKY, USA: The death toll from the crash of a UPS cargo plane that erupted into a fireball moments after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday has risen to nine, city and state officials said Wednesday.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site later Wednesday morning to begin the process of finding out what went wrong when the 34-year-old MD-11 cargo plane caught fire around 5:13 p.m. ET Tuesday and then crashed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said nine dead people had been found at the scene of the crash. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on social media it was possible there would be more fatalities. The plane had a crew of three according to UPS and officials said none of the crew survived.
Several buildings in an industrial area beyond the runway were on fire after the crash, with thick, black smoke seen rising into the evening sky.
Officials said 11 victims had been taken to hospitals on Tuesday.
A government official told Reuters at least 10 others remain unaccounted for. Beshear told CNN that two people remain in critical condition and added it could have been much worse.
“This plane barely missed a restaurant bar. It was very close to a very large Ford plant with hundreds, if not a thousand plus workers,” Beshear said. ” It was very close to our convention center that’s having a big livestock show that people were arriving for.” The international airport in Louisville reopened to air traffic early on Wednesday, though the runway where the accident happened is expected to remain closed for another 10 days, officials said.
UPS said Wednesday it canceled a parcel sorting shift that usually begins in the midmorning at its facility at the airport after it had halted package sorting operations Tuesday.
US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said on Wednesday he has not seen any evidence of a link between the accident and a 36-day US government shutdown that has strained air traffic control.
NTSB investigators will be looking to retrieve the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder that will shed light on the crash.
Brickhouse said investigators are expected to focus on the number one engine which was seen on video to be ignited, and appeared to have separated from the aircraft. “It is designed to fly if you lose one engine, but we need to see the effect of losing that engine on the rest of the aircraft,” Brickhouse said.
The triple-engine plane was fueled for an 8-1/2 hour flight to Honolulu.
It was the first UPS cargo plane to crash since August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew.