British Palestinians demand UK action as Gaza relatives face starvation

Basem Farajallah speaks with his sister in Gaza every day. She is diabetic and surviving on scraps of bread. He has 80 family members still alive in Gaza - but 40 others have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023, including 25 who were wiped out in a single strike.

Farajallah emphasised that he is not alone. He is the co-founder of the UK Gaza Community, a group of some 350 British Palestinians with relatives in Gaza.

For the last 18 months, they have been forced to watch them disappear under the rubble of their homes under relentless Israeli bombardment. Now, they are watching them starve amid Israel’s ongoing blockade on the territory.

Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, the group has been fruitlessly pushing to bring their families to the UK, launching a petition that garnered over 100,000 signatures demanding the government create a Ukraine-style visa scheme to reunite them.

While UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pronounced Israel’s blockade on Gaza “intolerable”, Farajallah said they have been “neglected” by the government, which has rejected their calls for the creation of the scheme.

“For us, its like torture,” Farajallah told Middle East Eye. “We are not talking about huge numbers, when we created our list of the family members we wanted to bring to the UK, it was less than 2000 people”.

Read more: British Palestinians demand UK action as Gaza relatives face starvation