A 15-year-old boy from Gaza brought to the UK for urgent medical treatment has told Sky News of his joy and relief.
Majd Alshagnobi arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with his mother and two siblings to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday evening, with well-wishers bearing flowers, gifts, and banners.
It has been a tortuous wait for the teenager, who suffered severe facial injuries in February 2024 when Israeli tank shells exploded near him and a group of friends.
Majd lost part of his face as well as his entire jaw and all his teeth. It has left him and his family traumatised.
His mother, Islam, told me that doctors at the Mamadani hospital in Gaza were shocked that her son survived the incident.
“When Majd first got to the hospital, they thought he was dead because of the severities of the injuries on his face and leg,” she said. “But when he raised his arm, they realised he was still alive.
“All the operating rooms were busy, so they carried out the operation in the kitchen to save him.
“It was very difficult for him to breathe, and they had to feed him through tubes and syringes through his nose. He really suffered.”
Majd stood awestruck at the window of the small central London apartment where his family had been accommodated. He wore a blue surgical mask but gently pulled it down to reveal a smile.
“Thank God I have the opportunity to receive treatment here… that’s the reason I have come. To get treatment,” he said. “Since I arrived, I have felt so much happier.
“We’ve been greeted in such a nice way, with gifts and things to help us.”
But it will take time for the young football fan to come to terms with the trauma he has suffered.
When I ask him what he remembers from his time in Gaza, he replies: “I saw dogs eating bodies and I was terrified, and I thought I was going to die. Stuff like that…”
Majd Alshagnobi’s mother Islam
His mother, who has had to leave two of her children in Gaza with their father, tells me: “Right now my family in Gaza live in tents. We’ve lost our home, we’ve lost our memories, we’ve lost our dreams. Nothing is left in Gaza.
“My two children who are still in Gaza with their father, every day I wake up in fear that they have been killed. Anything could happen to them in Gaza.”
Around 5,000 children have been evacuated from Gaza, with the majority going to Egypt and Gulf countries.
Majd is the third child to come to the UK with the help of the charity Project Pure Hope.
The group of volunteers have been campaigning successive governments for the last 20 months to create a scheme which would allow for the evacuation of 30 to 50 children.
The charity has raised the money to bring the children and their families to the UK, and cover their medical costs, privately.
Read more:
The view from a plane dropping aid to Gaza
Inside Gaza’s Nasser Hospital
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Tap to follow
Last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government was “accelerating efforts” to evacuate Gazan children who need urgent medical care in the UK.
Omar Din, the co-founder of Project Pure Hope, says it is time for the government to step in and take responsibility.
“We’re hoping following the prime minister’s announcement last Friday, that in the coming days we’ll have some concrete actions,” he said. “The more we wait, the more children die who we could be saving.
“We’ve done this privately because there was no other option available but myself, and members of my founding team, have done lots of this work for Ukrainian refugees previously. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing that for Gazans.”
