Holloway writer and director Ahmed Masoud with brother Khaled

FAMILIES in Islington who have relatives living in Palestine are calling for the government to support a Ukrainian-style family visa scheme.

Ahmed Masoud, a writer and director from Holloway, was speaking as MPs debated a petition on Monday calling on the government to introduce a visa scheme.

The petition, which reached more than 100,000 signatures, saw a number of Labour and Tory MPs debate the issue but the government has rejected any plans to launch a new pathway to Britain.

Mr Masoud, who moved from Gaza to Britain in 2005 and settled in Islington with his British wife and children, said he “can’t understand” why his adopted country can’t offer Palestinians a refuge from the fighting.

“Britain has started a refugee scheme for Ukraine and other countries affected by conflict,” he said.

“I don’t understand why they can’t do the same for Gaza. We are British nationals who have family there directly affected by the situation. My sister has just had a baby and she is currently surrounded by Israeli tanks in Jabalia Camp. All I want is for them to be safe and the least the government, my government here in the UK that I vote for, can do is to try and help.”

A Home Office spokesperson this week said their “approach to any humanitarian situation must be considered in the round”, and moved to say they “currently have no plans to establish a separate route for Palestinians to come to the UK”.

In January Mr Masoud’s brother Khaled was killed in an airstrike in Gaza, while his sister Hind, who has a three-week-old baby, is still there. Mr Masoud, a director at the University of the Arts London, said he was asking for the opportunity for his family to apply for a visa. “I can support them,” he added.

His wife, Heather Masoud, said family and friends have offered to support their extended family and other refugees.

Describing the moment they discovered Khaled had been killed, she said: “It was in January, and Ahmed heard about it, I think, on a Friday. And then they didn’t know for several days whether he was alive because no one could reach him. They heard about the airstrike but no one could go back into the area because there were Israeli army on the ground preventing anyone from going back into Jabalia Camp, so they had a hope that maybe he wasn’t dead.

“But when they could go back into the area, they did find him and he was just about alive, he had been alive for a number of days, just bleeding out. So they loaded him onto a cart because there’s no ambulances, but he died when they were trying to get him out of that area.”

Islington South MP Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow Attorney General, indicated her party would support a Ukrainian-style family visa scheme and said Palestinians were currently facing “insurmountable barriers to accessing family reunion visas”.

She added: “That’s completely unacceptable, which is why Labour is calling on the government to allow eligible Gazans to have family visa applications assessed and approved in principle, with biometric data then submitted in Egypt prior to travel to the UK.

“And we also want the Foreign Office to ensure that all those who hold UK visas or are eligible for family reunion are assisted to leave Gaza in order to submit the necessary biometric data.”