The husband of a teacher from Liverpool who is stuck in Gaza has criticised the Foreign Office for failing to help his wife reach safety.
Islam Alashi, who teaches English as a second language, travelled to Gaza in September to visit family. She has been stuck there amid Israeli bombardment since the conflict with Hamas began on 7 October.
Alashi is a Palestinian national with a spousal visa to remain in the UK, while her husband, Feiz Chihaoui, and their two children are British citizens.
When Chihaoui contacted the British embassy in Cairo for assistance in October, he was told none could be provided because she was not a citizen.
“I was crying yesterday and said look: ‘I’m British. My kids, they’re British, and I’ve got the right to everything,” said Chihaoui, 45.
On 8 November, Chihaoui provided identification documents at the Foreign Office’s request and was told steps were being taken to share his wife’s details with the Egyptian authorities. They have not heard from the UK government since.
“All I ask is just to get my wife back,” he said. “I’m not asking for any more, and this is 100% my right.”
The Rafah crossing first opened on 1 November to allow specific groups of foreign nationals and the seriously wounded to leave. By early November, more than half of the British nationals seeking to escape Gaza for Egypt had managed to do so.
The Guardian understands the Foreign Office submits details of British nationals and dependents to Israeli and Egyptian authorities who create a list for individuals to cross the Rafah border. There have been a number of occasions where individuals not on any list have managed to cross.
The law firm Leigh Day, which has sent letters to the Foreign Office on the family’s behalf, said it was aware of a number of cases of individuals and families who were not receiving the consular assistance required to leave Gaza.
“The British embassy has refused to assist our client’s wife, leaving her trapped in a war zone separated from her British husband and children. Her life is in immediate danger due to the ongoing bombardment in Gaza,” saidTessa Gregory, a partner in the Leigh Day human rights team.
“Our client provided all of the necessary documentation to prove Mrs Alashi’s eligibility for repatriation to the UK 10 days ago, yet still, and despite the intervention of their MP, there has been no communication from the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office],” said Gregory.
For six weeks, Alashi and her relatives have been under Israeli bombardment, moving between family members’ houses in Gaza City as they were destroyed. On Saturday, they were forced to evacuate her aunt’s home, and Alashi witnessed her neighbours being killed by a missile attack, according to her husband.
Alashi, her father and sister walked eight miles (13km) to Khan Younis, the biggest city in the south, to where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated in recent weeks. Chihaoui said they had no food or water, except rainfall caught using plastic containers. At night they sleep on a school floor with hundreds of others.
“The place they are now, they are not safe. Every single metre in Gaza is not safe,” said Chihaoui, who has been unable to speak to his wife since Thursday due to a communication blackout.
Back in Merseyside, Alashi’s five-year-old twins are not eating well and ask constantly about their mother. Chihaoui said he had stopped going outside and was not watching the news of the Israeli bombing that has claimed more than 11,000 civilian lives, two-thirds of them women and children.
“I’ve been let down when the war started because every time I tried to call the FCDO they told me, ‘oh sorry, we can’t do anything for your wife,’” said Chihaoui. “All I ask is just to get my wife back.”
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The safety of British nationals remains our top priority. The FCDO have been in close contact with British nationals, including Feiz Chihaoui and his family, in Gaza throughout to provide them with the latest information. We have a team on the ground near the crossing to provide medical, consular and administrative support.”
