The father of a two-year-old girl whose life support is due to be withdrawn this week has appealed to the NHS to allow his daughter to die at home.

Alta Fixsler, who suffered a serious brain injury at birth, has been the subject of a legal battle between the family and Manchester University NHS foundation trust over her treatment.

The hospital has said she is in constant pain and continued life support is not in her best interests. Her parents, who are ultra-orthodox Jews, have said withdrawal of life support goes against their deeply held religious beliefs.

Following a supreme court ruling that Alta could have her life-sustaining treatment withdrawn, the child’s parents took their appeal to the European court of human rights, arguing such a move was against their Jewish faith and their rights as parents.

Earlier this month, the ECHR rejected their appeal and agreed with the UK court’s decision to allow the withdrawal of life-support and place Alta on end-of-life care.

On Monday, Alta’s father, Avraham Fixsler, speaking publicly for the first time, said he wanted his daughter to be allowed to die at home, with her parents and brother, rather than in hospital.

“Alta should be in our house for the last moments of her life,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Give us our last wishes, to be with our child in our comfort zone, in our house.”

The NHS trust has told the family life support will be withdrawn this week. According to Fixsler, doctors have said it could take “minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months” for the child to die.

He said the trust’s position has made the family feel uncomfortable about spending time with Alta in hospital. “You feel like they’re going against your wishes … you’re feeling like a fool when you’re [visiting],” Fixsler said.

The trust had sought expert opinion on Alta’s condition from independent doctors not involved in her care. But, Fixsler said, these doctors were “working for the NHS, in the same system”.

Fixsler said he had consulted four doctors in the US who concluded after reviewing Alta’s medical files that she could not feel pain.

Alta’s parents are Israeli citizens and her father also has US citizenship. She was born in the UK in February 2019, and has since been cared for in a Manchester hospital.

The US authorities granted her a non-immigrant visa to travel to the US for medical assessment and possible treatment. Israeli hospitals had also offered to treat Alta. However, the family was refused permission to remove Alta from the hospital.

Lawyers for the family have argued that Alta’s religion has not been adequately taken into account in legal hearings. “In Jewish culture, one becomes a member of the faith at conception and Alta’s religion forbids the withdrawal of life-saving care,” David Foster, a partner at the law firm Moore Barlow, has said.

The Manchester University NHS foundation trust said on Monday it understood this was an “incredibly difficult and distressing time” for the family, and it continued to offer them its support.

“Due to patient confidentiality, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” it said in a statement.