Six-Year-Old Saja El-Khawas Dies in Hospital After Shoreham Beach Tragedy That Killed Her Family
Saja El-Khawas, a six-year-old girl, has died in hospital three days after being pulled from the sea off Shoreham, West Sussex, according to The Guardian. Her death on Friday followed the deaths of her sister Sara El-Khawas, 14, and her parents Hassan El-Khawas, 55, and Zeina Alayn, 37, who all perished on Tuesday 18 August 2026 in the same incident.
Saja had been in hospital in critical condition since being rescued from the water. The confirmation of her identity and death was issued in a legal notice from solicitors acting on behalf of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS foundation trust, as well as the Palestinian Forum in Britain. The Palestinian embassy confirmed that Hassan El-Khawas was a British citizen of Palestinian descent.
The incident unfolded early on Tuesday afternoon when emergency services responded to a report of four people in difficulty in the water near Shoreham Fort. Police, paramedics, coastguard crews, and a lifeboat all attended the scene. Sussex Police stated that the family had travelled from their home in London to visit Shoreham and entered the water from the beach at Shoreham Fort around 2pm before getting into trouble.
The investigation into the incident remains open. Sussex Police said that following a review of CCTV footage and initial witness accounts, the current working hypothesis is that it was a tragic accident with no third-party involvement — meaning investigators do not suspect anyone else caused or contributed to the deaths. The force confirmed that the family's next of kin are aware and continue to receive the full support of their officers.
Sussex Police Chief Superintendent James Collis issued a statement expressing condolences and asking that the victims' family and loved ones be left to grieve in privacy.
The broader context here is that the deaths of four family members in a single coastal incident raise inevitable questions about water safety at Shoreham Fort, a stretch of coastline where tidal conditions and currents can shift rapidly. The police hypothesis of a tragic accident, grounded in CCTV review and witness testimony rather than speculation, narrows the scope of inquiry considerably. An open investigation, however, means the assessment could change if further evidence emerges.
The involvement of the Palestinian embassy and the Palestinian Forum in Britain reflects the family's heritage and the diaspora networks — community organisations that often mobilise around such tragedies — that connect British Palestinians to one another. Hassan El-Khawas held British citizenship, and the family resided in London. Their decision to travel to the Sussex coast for a day at the beach places this event within an unremarkable pattern of domestic leisure that ended in extraordinary loss.
Shoreham Fort sits at the mouth of the River Adur, where tidal flows from the English Channel meet the river current. The geography can produce unpredictable conditions for swimmers, particularly around low water when channels deepen and currents accelerate. These dynamics would form part of any ongoing investigation into how a family of four entered the water together and were unable to return to shore.
The three-day interval between the rescue and Saja's death in hospital at Guy's and St Thomas' highlights the severity of the medical challenge faced by emergency and clinical teams. Critical care following near-drowning involves managing oxygen deprivation, potential organ damage, and complications that can extend over days before outcomes become clear.
For Sussex Police, the priority now is concluding the investigation with sufficient thoroughness to confirm or revise the accident hypothesis. For the extended family and the communities connected to them, the focus is private grief for four lives lost in a single afternoon on a West Sussex beach.
