A 6-year-old girl with Palestinian and British nationality, whose parents and sister died in a drowning incident earlier this week, has died in hospital, according to local police.
Saja el-Khawas was admitted to hospital in critical condition on Tuesday but did not survive, Sussex Police confirmed on Friday.
Her father, Hassan El-Khawas, 55, mother Zeina Alayn, 37, and sister Sara El-Khawas, 14, all died at the scene after getting into difficulty in the water near Shoreham, Sussex, on Tuesday.
The family lived in London but had traveled to Shoreham for a day at the seaside while the UK experienced its latest heatwave of the year.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing, but the current hypothesis is a “tragic accident, with no third-party involvement”.
According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, citing the Palestinian embassy, the family originally came from the Rashidieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Hassan is understood to have arrived in the UK as a refugee, having previously lived in Rashidieh, one of the most populous Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
UK Mayor Andy Burnham earlier described what happened to the el-Khawas family as a “terrible family tragedy”.
The Palestine Forum in the UK held a memorial for the family on Thursday.
Drowning incidents have increased across Europe as people seek to cool off during the heatwave, with incidents reported in France, Germany, and the UK.
