Dozens of people have drowned across Europe this year amid record heatwaves. [File: Charlotte Coney/Getty Images]By Al Jazeera Staff and ReutersPublished On 22 Aug 202622 Aug 2026
A six-year-old Palestinian-British girl whose parents and sister drowned earlier this week has also died in hospital, according to local police.
Saja el-Khawas was taken to hospital in critical condition on Tuesday but has since died, Sussex police said Friday.
Saja’s father Hassan El-Khawas, 55, her mother Zeina Alayn, 37, and her 14-year-old sister Sara El-Khawas all died at the scene after getting into difficulty in the water at Shoreham, Sussex, on Tuesday.
The family lived in London but travelled to Shoreham to visit the beach as the United Kingdom sweltered under its latest heatwave of the year.
An investigation into what happened remains open, but the current theory is that it was a “tragic accident, with no third-party involvement”, the police said.
British newspaper the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday, citing the Palestinian embassy, that the family was originally from the Rashidieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Hassan reportedly came to the UK as a refugee, and previously lived in the Rashidieh camp, one of the most populous Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously described what happened to the el-Khawas family as a “terrible family tragedy”.
The Palestinian Forum in Britain held a gathering to commemorate the family on Thursday.
Drownings have surged across Europe as people seek relief from the heatwave on the continent, with incidents reported in France, Germany and the UK.
