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

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -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 criticised 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 centre 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)