A British consultant cardiologist based in Swansea has said he is being “handed a death sentence” after being forced to return to Gaza over the border from Egypt at the Rafah crossing on Wednesday.
Dr Ahmed Sabra said: “I am making a desperate appeal to the public that hold British values to help us. We are being handed a death sentence. Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world.
“The staff from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that are supposed to help us at the Rafah crossing have vanished.”
Sending a series of emotional voice notes as he was being forced back over the border in a bus, he said he and another small group of British nationals were being forced back over the border even though they had been allowed to cross by Palestinians in Gaza along with the rest of his family. He had been visiting Gaza with his wife and three children.
Palestinian officials in Gaza had permitted him to cross with his family even though, unlike his family, he was not the approved list, and after three days on the Egyptian side waiting for the process to be complete, he was ordered back.
The approved list is drawn up by Egypt and Israel, and it is not clear why he and other British nationals had been excluded from travelling with the rest of their families.
He said he had been told “the British embassy had not followed the clear process to put him on the approved list”, and he could not understand why families were being divided.
He said: “At least my family is safe and they have been allowed to enter Egypt.” He said his wife and family had reached Cairo.
“I hope my friends, my colleagues in the hospital and my patients can do something. I feel almost like the Foreign Office wanted me to go back, or just did the minimum.”
Admitting he was deeply distressed and angry, he said he had been waiting for a month to get out. “We have seen and smelt death every day, we have heard death every day, and we felt like we died 100 times.”
“I feel like a second class citizen. They dealt with Ukrainians and Afghans better than us.
Speaking through tears, he said he was concerned not just for himself but the thousands of Palestinians who had been killed. He asked: “How can anyone be so heartless as to say the number dead is not accurate. I think the number is understated. There are so many in the rubble. I have been to the hospitals. I know how they work and most medical services have been stopped. People with heart attacks are not being treated. I think the death toll is much higher.”
Geraint Davies, the independent MP for Swansea West, has been battling to get Sabra and his family out of Gaza for more than two weeks.
He said: “This is more than a grotesque failure by the FCDO, who are directly complicit, according to the Egyptians in him being sent back to danger. I have been in touch with No 10, alongside the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and Lord Ahmad [Middle East minister] directly.
“The government’s first duty is to protect their citizens and they have allowed Dr Sabra potentially to be sent to his death. Much more was done for non-UK nationals escaping from enemies in Kabul than for Dr Sabra, who was already in the British embassy’s care.”
A UK foreign office spokesman said: “We’re working round the clock to ensure all British nationals in Gaza who want to leave are able to.
“This involves submitting all details of British nationals and eligible dependents to the Israeli and Egyptian authorities. The authorities then review all cases and give permissions to cross.
“We remain in regular contact with British nationals in Gaza to provide them with the latest information, and UK teams are forward deployed to the border to receive anyone leaving”.
