Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Before I call Melanie Ward to move the motion, it is self-evident that this debate is well subscribed. At the moment, just based on the numbers who have put in to speak—there are some hon. Members who have turned up who have not put in to speak, which does not mean they cannot be called—it looks as though the speech limit will be around one minute 30 seconds. If there are more interventions, that may have to be reduced.
Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered humanitarian access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. We meet today almost two years in to the devastating war on Gaza. Over 63,000 Palestinians have been directly killed—44% of them women and children.
Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)
The United Nations estimates that more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza over the last two years. We know from recent events that international pressure is not working. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must go further to ensure that aid is allowed to flow in freely and lasting peace is reached?
Melanie Ward
I agree with my hon. Friend, and I will have much more to say about that.
Thousands more are likely dead under the rubble as well. There is man-made famine. Schools, hospitals, mosques, homes—the very fabric of life is being destroyed by the Israeli Government. Almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the west bank in the last two years also. I am sure that all of us here will agree that the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas were an outrage, and the Israeli hostages must be released. Attacking civilians is never justified. I know there is so much to say about the situation in Gaza in particular, which global experts increasingly assess as a genocide, and that will especially be the case given the Israeli President’s visit, and Israel’s unacceptable attack on Qatar yesterday, clearly designed to scupper any chance of a ceasefire.
Alex Ballinger (Halesowen) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that Israel’s attack on our friend Qatar—indeed, against the very negotiators that were supposed to be discussing this ceasefire—shows that it has no interest in securing peace, and that there must be consequences for that action?
Melanie Ward
I agree on both points. We have to remember that Qatar was asked by the international community to undertake the hugely important role that it plays in trying to bring about peace and a ceasefire through negotiations. The focus of today’s debate, however, is humanitarian access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the ways that aid workers are increasingly being prevented from doing their job, which is to serve civilians in need.
Aid workers serve humanity. When they are prevented from doing their jobs, it is humanity that suffers. In the aftermath of the atrocities of world war two, the main bodies of international humanitarian law were drawn up—what are often called the “laws of war”. Part of their purpose is to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach those in need, and that aid workers can do their jobs safely, in line with humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.
Uma Kumaran (Stratford and Bow) (Lab)
I apologise for cutting my hon. Friend short; I am due to be meeting the director of the World Food Programme in Palestine shortly. Yesterday I met the ambassador for Jordan; he and his delegates told us that aid is sitting on the border in Jordan, but Israel is preventing aid that could help thousands of people from getting in. Does my hon. Friend agree that the UK Government need to do all they can to put pressure on our United States counterparts to force Israel into allowing this aid in?
Melanie Ward
My hon. Friend knows exactly what she is talking about. I agree completely, and I ask her to convey our solidarity to the Palestine director of the World Food Programme when they meet shortly.
To state the obvious: to alleviate the suffering of a population in humanitarian need, aid workers need to be able to reach them. Too often across the world today we see aid workers being restricted from reaching people in need, something that is in violation of the laws of war. Gaza is ground zero for that.
We are all familiar with the barriers that Israel has put in place to stop aid entering Gaza. Indeed, the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), has said that creative solutions, such as floating piers, are needed to get aid into Gaza. We also know that aid drops are deeply flawed. However, the solution to getting aid into Gaza is simple—Israel must open the gates and let it in.
Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)
On that point, it is quite clear, as we have seen, that the number of deaths we have seen at the food distribution centres run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—something like 3% of the total number of deaths—is an outrage. Does my hon. Friend agree that restoring an orderly supply of humanitarian aid is critical?
Melanie Ward
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; I will come on to say more about that issue.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)
My hon. Friend will be aware of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is the largest maritime mission to Gaza and includes civilians from across the globe, two of whom are constituents of mine. This aid mission is entirely legal, non-violent and presents no threat to the Israeli Government or Israeli citizens. However, we have already seen attacks on it, and we know from past experience that it may face further attacks. Does she agree that it should be the primary duty of this Government to protect British citizens, including those participating in the flotilla? If so, will she join me in calling on the Minister to outline exactly what the Government will do to secure the safety of our citizens?
Melanie Ward
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I am sure that the Minister has heard what she said, and I have a lot more to say about how we can protect civilians and aid workers, too.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is being very generous with her time. Just before this debate, I met Antoine Renard, who made a point to me about the disinformation that is being spread about rotten food, and emphasised the importance of having trusted NGOs, a point my hon. Friend made earlier in her speech. Does she agree that we must compel the President of the United States to recognise those points when he comes to the UK on a state visit next week?
Melanie Ward
My hon. Friend makes an important intervention. Indeed, this topic is riddled with misinformation and errant nonsense, put out there for political reasons; I am sure that we will hear some more of it later on.
The issue of access for aid workers has received much less attention than that of aid not being allowed into Gaza in the first place, but, to state the obvious, it is no use getting malnutrition treatment into a warzone without the skilled staff—whether local or international aid workers —who know how to use it. Being able to reach starving children is obviously essential to saving their lives.
There are many ways of denying humanitarian access: visa and permit restrictions that deny entry; failing to grant movement permission, which means not agreeing to give safe passage to humanitarian workers; putting in place requirements to hand over sensitive information about local staff and clients; threatening to close down banking; and making it simply too dangerous to work in an area. The Israeli Government are using every one of these tactics to shut down legitimate humanitarian operations in Gaza today. It is not Hamas that pay the price for that; it is starving children.
The Israeli Government have a new front in their war. It is against NGOs, including humanitarian aid charities, some of them British. As of yesterday, the Israeli Government have introduced new restrictions on NGO registration, which require international NGOs to share sensitive personal information about Palestinian employees or face termination of their humanitarian operations across the OPT. NGOs such as Medical Aid for Palestinians have made clear that such data-sharing would put lives at risk in such a dangerous context for aid workers, especially given the fact that 98% of aid workers killed have been Palestinian nationals.
One month ago, on 6 August, UN agencies and others issued a warning that, without immediate action, most international NGOs faced deregistration, which would force them to withdraw all international staff and prevent them from providing critical lifesaving aid to Palestinians. The deadline of 9 September passed yesterday; the evidence so far suggests that the staff of aid agencies that speak out about what they witness are being particularly targeted. As a former aid worker who has worked in a range of war zones, including Gaza, I know that advocacy about what we see is vital in trying to bring change.
The move to block international NGOs from operating in Gaza has been compounded since the chilling arrival of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in May. Let us call it what it is: a bunch of mercenaries, and a disgrace. Since the GHF was set up, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Gaza while seeking aid, in what has been described by Médecins Sans Frontières as “orchestrated killing”. A recent MSF report says that the majority of people attending their clinics after being shot at GHF hubs are
“covered in sand and dust from time spent lying on the ground while taking cover from bullets.”
It quotes one man as saying of the site:
“You find what seems like two million people gathered around five pallets of food. They tell you to enter, you go in, you grab what you can—maybe a can of fava beans, a can of hummus. Then a minute later, gunfire comes from every direction. Shells, gunfire—you can’t even hold onto your can of hummus. You don’t know where the gunfire is coming from.”
Three months after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began its operations to supposedly provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, the integrated food security phase classification confirmed that Gaza was in famine for the first time. That is the grim reality of a situation where Israel attacks independent aid workers while its own so-called aid workers attack civilians. At least 531 aid workers and 1,590 health workers, overwhelmingly Palestinian nationals, have been killed in Gaza in the past two years.
Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Last night I co-hosted an event in Parliament for Wael al-Dahdouh, the former bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Gaza, whose family members have been killed, and five of whose colleagues were killed during a double strike on a hospital only a few weeks ago that also killed four healthcare workers. Does my hon. Friend agree that the UK Government should stand up for journalists and healthcare workers in Gaza and make sure that their deaths are properly investigated?
Melanie Ward
I completely agree with my hon. Friend, who does hugely important work on this topic. Journalists, aid workers and others being able to see and report on what is taking place is massively important, and there are undoubtedly horrific attempts to stop that. Bombing a hospital to kill a journalist is absolutely disgraceful.
There were 940 incidents of attacks on healthcare in Gaza in 2024, more than the total number of health attacks in Ukraine and Sudan put together for that same year. The corresponding figure for the west bank and East Jerusalem is 418 in one year.
I want to give an example of what we mean when we talk about aid workers being attacked. On 18 January 2024, an Israeli F-16 fired a 1,000-lb smart bomb that struck a Medical Aid for Palestinians and International Rescue Committee compound housing aid workers in Gaza’s supposed safe zone of al-Mawasi. It almost killed my then colleagues, including four British doctors. We had to evacuate the doctors, disrupting a lifesaving emergency medical programme, and Palestinian colleagues were traumatised and terrified.
The Israeli military knew who that compound belonged to. I know that because it was personally confirmed to me, as the then chief executive officer of Medical Aid for Palestinians, on 22 December 2023 by the British Embassy in Israel that the IDF knew of our location and had marked it as a humanitarian site. That should have protected us. The IDF knew, too, that our staff were there, having come back to rest from the hospital the previous evening, their movement having been logged properly through the supposed deconfliction system.
After bombing us, the Israeli regime provided six different explanations to the then US and UK Governments and to me for why they had bombed our compound. Those explanations, sometimes provided by and to the very highest levels of Government, ranged from the Israeli military being unaware of what had happened to denying involvement; accepting responsibility for the strike, which had been attempting to hit a target adjacent to our compound, despite the fact that the compound was not close to any other building, which was one of the reasons we selected it; accepting responsibility for the strike and asserting that it was a mistake caused by a defective tail fin on the missile that was fired; and accepting responsibility and advising that what hit the MAP-IRC compound was a piece of aircraft fuselage that had been discharged by the pilot of the Israeli fighter jet. The variety of responses was both farcical and frightening. I think it is reasonable to assume that someone cannot just get in an Israeli fighter jet, take it for a fly and fire at whatever they like. The targets, as we are often told, are very carefully selected.
I highlight, too, the targeted drone attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy—also in a supposedly deconflicted zone—that killed seven aid workers on 1 April last year, the week before I was last in Gaza. That concluded with a hurried internal Israeli investigation where no one was held accountable for murdering humanitarians. On 3 August, just last month, the Israeli military attacked the headquarters of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza, killing one of its staff in a building that also was known to the Israelis and clearly marked. Their military told the BBC that they were “reviewing the claim” of the PRCS.
Evidence shows that United Nations Relief and Works Agency staff have been killed, faced abuse and been detained on a regular basis, and subjected to sleep deprivation, beatings and attacks by dogs. Time and again, the Israeli military attack aid workers then refuse to properly investigate what happened. The only conclusion we can reach is that they are doing this deliberately—these are war crimes.
Afzal Khan (Manchester Rusholme) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is making a powerful case about the catalogue of atrocities being committed. In July, the Prime Minister announced that
“the UK will recognise the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”.
Those steps have not been taken, and the situation has got worse; we saw what happened yesterday in Qatar. Does she agree that the UK must now recognise a Palestinian state as part of a broader push for peace and urgent humanitarian relief?
Melanie Ward
I absolutely agree that it is time to take the historic step of recognising a state of Palestine.
I have some questions for the Minister, but first I want to put one more thing on the record; it points to one of the reasons why the Israeli Government do not want people to see what is taking place. An aid worker who I know very well—a very experienced aid worker in Gaza—told me about a situation that he witnessed in the north of Gaza, in Gaza City, after an Israeli siege of the main hospital there. After the siege, he was one of the first people to enter the compound of the hospital. He told me that what they saw were the remains of many half-buried bodies. In all but one case, it was impossible even to identify the sex of the dead body. The only person they could identify was an old man who had his wrists bound.
This aid worker told me, too, that there was a huge pile of clothes in the compound of the hospital and that when the aid workers entered the compound, many of the people who lived around about the hospital came in and began sifting through the pile of clothes. Because they could not identify the bodies of any of the dead people, the relatives were looking through the pile of clothes to see whether they could identify any of the clothes that had belonged to their loved ones, which would mean their loved ones might be among the dead. This is why we need proper justice, investigations and accountability for what is happening in Gaza.
Does the Minister agree that it is time for an independent investigation into these incidents and others like them? Will the Government support full accountability for these and other war crimes against aid workers, and will he personally take up the case of the MAP-IRC compound bombing with the Israeli Government? Can he share what the Government have done to stop the new restrictions on aid agencies? Will the Government make it clear to Israel that if it proceeds and aid agencies are denied access, it will pay a price for doing this?
Finally, I know that the Minister will not commit to this today, but will he agree to go away and examine expanding the UK sanctions regime to cover all those involved in violations of IHL? The Government have rightly sanctioned violent settlers in the west bank, but they should also target those instructing the blockade of aid and involved in the targeting of aid workers in Gaza, for example. Will the Minister agree to look into that and write to me about it?
What happens in Gaza does not stay in Gaza. In June, a British aid worker was killed in a drone strike in Ukraine. In Sudan, refugee camps are being continuously targeted, with children and aid workers being killed. Only 10 days ago, the Houthis in Yemen arrested 19 UN staff, adding to dozens of UN staff already arbitrarily detained since 2024. Last year was the worst year on record for attacks on healthcare, and this trend is worsening. Such attacks violate international law, and the more they are allowed to continue with impunity, the more they incentivise malign actors in other conflicts to do the same. Accountability is essential.
Several hon. Members rose—
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Order. Will Members remain bobbed for a second so that we can calculate the time for speeches? I remind Members to bob after every speech. The speech time will be one minute and 30 seconds.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer.
Nine children lie in bloodstained, torn clothes. They were not fighters, militants, extremists or terrorists; they were simply queuing for water in what Israel itself has declared a safe zone, and yet the so-called most moral army in the world unleashed death upon them. Their small bodies now bear witness to a horror that no child should ever know. That is not an isolated strategy, as the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) so powerfully said. We have seen the death of innocent people in churches, mosques, hospitals and schools—every sector of Palestinian society has been destroyed.
For those who survive the bombs, starvation is tightening its grip. Families are already watching loved ones waste away: 361 people have already died of hunger, including 83 since famine was officially declared. The world’s leading genocide scholars, Israeli human rights organisations and international experts are clear: what is happening in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide. Yet here in Britain, the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), in his final flurry as Foreign Secretary, wrote that the Government have not determined that Israel acts with intent, and therefore there is not a genocide. How can anybody look away relentlessly when all this tragedy is happening?
I have very little time, so I ask the Minister: will he call on diplomatic—
Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)
The IPC has declared only four famines since it was established in 2004. In August, it declared one in Gaza City. It said:
“this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed”.
The non-governmental organisations I have spoken to have been unable to get any aid into Gaza since March. Save the Children has 45 trucks of aid, including medicine, shelter items and hygiene kits, waiting in warehouses, and Oxfam has been unable to bring in any menstrual supplies.
Humanitarian access also means ensuring the safety of humanitarian workers. The year 2024 was the deadliest on record to be an aid worker, and Gaza is the deadliest place on Earth to be an aid worker. On 1 April 2024, one of my constituents, James Henderson, was killed alongside other aid workers from World Central Kitchen while taking humanitarian aid into Gaza. It was not an isolated incident. Between 7 October 2023 and August 2025, 508 humanitarian personnel have been killed.
I welcome the statement by the previous Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), on the IPC ruling made on 22 August. I also welcome the diplomatic and economic measures that the Government have already taken with allies. However, the situation is becoming ever more desperate. Many constituents constantly ask me what more we can do and what more action we can take. Some, such as Kerenza, who I saw yesterday, are taking time off work to support the flotilla, and some are protesting.
With the other three Labour MPs for Cornwall, I have asked for clear diplomatic and economic action with our allies, such as extending further sanctions—
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) on the passion for humanitarian issues that she has shown in this Chamber and elsewhere in the House in the time that I have known her.
Samaritan’s Purse is an NGO that operates out of my constituency of Strangford and responds in areas of humanitarian need. When victims of war, poverty, disaster, disease and famine cry out, Samaritan’s Purse is often the first to answer. It specialises in meeting critical needs in the world’s most troubled regions. It works through ministry partners already on the scene of a crisis.
Members are thankful for every single charity that is doing its utmost to help, from Samaritan’s Purse collections in Northern Ireland in my constituency of Strangford, under its tremendously hard-working and gifted volunteer Gillian Gilliland, my constituent, through to our American counterparts. Aid has been sent, and it is the place of this House to do all we can to ensure that it goes to the places that most need it. There is a disaster assistance response team, and I have written to the Minister’s Department to ensure that help is given in particular to the NGO Samaritan’s Purse, so that it can do its work.
The House must do its best so that children on both sides of the Gaza strip can have hope and a future. That is the best that we can do in this House today.
Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.
It was deemed irrefutable by the UN-backed agencies that this is a man-made famine. That man-made famine becomes a genocide if it can be proven that it was used as a tool to destroy a specific group of people—and I believe that there is only one group of people there. Journalists and international monitors, who we rely on for all our information—for reality on the ground—have been banned from entering Gaza, leaving brave Palestinians to tell us their story.
Even though there is a growing consensus among genocide scholars that Israel’s actions in Gaza do meet the legal definition of a genocide, without access to information on what is happening, and until mainstream journalists are allowed in, we are left in the dark over the true extent of the horrors on the ground. How will we gather the evidence needed to assess that Israel is committing genocide? How much more slaughter will the Palestinians have to suffer in the meantime?
On all fronts, entry into the occupied Palestinian territories for journalists, monitors and aid workers has been shut. Food and essentials for Palestinians have been banned, blocked, barricaded and destroyed.
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
As a parent, I cannot imagine the agony of seeing your children starve and not being able to do anything about it, but that is the daily experience of families in Palestine. Does my hon. Friend agree that Israel’s man-made catastrophe must be put to an end and that aid must be allowed into Gaza immediately?
Jas Athwal
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that this has to come to an end straight away. While I welcome the Government’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine and to condemn the Israeli Government’s dehumanisation of Palestinians, we must face up to the unfortunate truth that this is simply not enough, as it has not stopped the violence. Instead, every day the reports grow bleaker, the suffering is deeper and the need for intervention grows more urgent.
Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) (Ind)
We have all witnessed what can only be described as genocide and ethnic cleansing, mass starvation, and the intentional murder of aid workers and people who want doctors and so forth. This Government’s approach, in saying that there is not a genocide, further emboldens Israel in what it is doing. Does the hon. Member agree that military intervention is an option that should not be off the table?
Jas Athwal
What I agree with is that we must never give up the diplomatic option, because that is the way that we will get across. We must avoid more bloodshed at any cost, and we must work harder for the diplomatic solution.
Mr Stringer, I will not abuse my position; having had two interventions, I will relinquish the floor for my colleagues to contribute.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Ind)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) not only for all her work in the region, but for bringing this debate forward.
We have met those who have suffered and lost, and who have risked everything to deliver aid and service. We have seen pictures of suffering that no mind can forget and heard the heart-rending agony of trauma and devastation: from the children whose bodies are unrecognisable from blasts, bullets and bombs, with no analgesia to soothe them, to children so emaciated that they can no longer feed—little bundles of linen, as parents are ripped apart with grief. And yet it continues. Our constituents want our Government to do more. All they feel that they can do is march, donate and pray. We too want our Government to do more, but we have to believe that even today, our agency will resonate with them and with the Knesset.
I want to ask the Minister a few questions on the health aid that we can provide. What are the plans for this afternoon’s discussions? What is going to happen after today to ensure that aid arrives at its destination? How will we ensure that healthcare gets through, and how will we provide the support and training of medical staff to ensure that we can rebuild the health service for the future?
Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)
UNRWA has been crippled, staff killed, warehouses targeted and its mandate undermined. Since last July, less than 40% of required food supplies have entered Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, anti-Islamic US biker gang included, operates only a handful of distribution points where UNRWA once ran 800. Its centres are largely in the south, forcing desperate civilians towards the Egyptian border, in line with Israeli military objectives. There have been repeated shootings at those sites. This is not humanitarian work; this is exploitation of suffering.
The assault on Gaza City is escalating, 1 million residents have been told to evacuate, and we risk a further escalation of civilian death—a new phase in the genocide, so I ask the Government: what action is being taken to enforce an immediate ceasefire? Will the UK match the EU’s move to suspend bilateral support to Israel? And will we ask our F-35 partner nations to consider suspending supplies?
Mr Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford) (Lab)
The sheer volume of correspondence that I have received from my constituents about the restriction of aid going into the Occupied Palestinian Territories is vast—unprecedented. Israel has weaponised the flow of aid into Gaza. The loss of life and the destruction of homes and schools is horrifying. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to take more steps to ensure that aid can reach the Occupied Palestinian Territories?
Andy McDonald
I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend’s comment. Much more needs to be done. I also support the call for UN peacekeepers. I ask the Government directly: has there been any discussion with the UN Secretary-General on the use of peacekeepers to secure operations? And will demands be made of President Herzog, as he is here today—the man who signed the bombs that would rain on Gazan children and who made it abundantly clear that he was totally aligned with the principles of collective punishment? We have to shake our heads that such a man should be invited into our country.
Civilians in Gaza cannot wait. Starvation is advancing. International law is being shredded. Britain must act decisively, urgently and on the side of humanity.
Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this important debate.
I begin with a harrowing quote from a father in Gaza speaking to aid workers:
“Bread has become a dream. On the fourth attempt, I finally got flour—but only by stepping over bodies of people who died trying to reach the same bag I held in my hands.”
Those words are not simply tragic; they are a stark reminder of the human cost of conflict—a cost borne disproportionately by those who have no choice and no voice in the halls of power.
More sobering is the fact that this situation is not an unavoidable tragedy. It is a deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war. It is a campaign of mass killing. It is a war crime. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned us plainly:
“We are failing the people of Gaza. Inaction is not an option.”
Yet we sit in our homes in our country, with a Government choosing to look away. I ask our Government and the Minister: has Israel really desisted? Has it responded to any of the steps that the Government have taken? It has actually increased the atrocities and the number of people being killed on a day-to-day basis, using all means available.
I end by asking the Government: will we stop looking away? Will the Government finally demand and enforce a permanent ceasefire, ensure the protection of civilians and ensure unhindered access to aid? Will we—
Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. The famine that we see unfolding in Gaza is not merely a humanitarian crisis, but an absolute moral catastrophe: children starving before our eyes and families digging through rubble not for shelter but for food.
I welcome the fact that the Government have already taken decisive action to respond to this by restoring funding to UNRWA, through a programme to airlift critically injured children, and by supporting UK-Med and treating more than 600,000 Gazans. We have helped to shape the international community’s work to plan for what post-conflict peace will look like. We have provided more than £250 million in development assistance and have been working with our allies, including Egypt and Jordan.
Those are all welcome steps, but all of us here today want to hear from the Minister about what more we will do. We must get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, without obstruction, without delay and on a scale that meets this vast and desperate need. Food, water, medicine and shelter are not political bargaining chips; they are basic human rights.
Susan Murray (Mid Dunbartonshire) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for bringing this important debate to the Minister.
The situation in Palestine has been the single most pressing issue raised with me by my constituents in Mid Dunbartonshire. What possible justification can there be for the deliberate creation of famine? Starvation is not only a humanitarian catastrophe; it is recognised under international law as an illegal weapon of war. Despite repeated assurances, arms sales to Israel continue, sanctions against those responsible for violence have not been imposed, the right of the Palestinian people to recognition has been treated as a bargaining chip, and hundreds of peaceful protesters here in the UK have been arrested.
The Liberal Democrats call on the Government to press for full and unimpeded humanitarian access to the Palestinian territories. Without appropriate humanitarian access, and with only limited aid convoys and airdrops—spotlighted by propaganda—the Palestinian people will face catastrophe beyond the horror they already live every day. Without a serious change of course, this Government risk both appearing weak on the international stage and undermining trust at home—targeting elderly protesters here while refusing to take meaningful action abroad.
Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for her tireless activism on this issue.
Twenty months ago, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches Palestinians in Gaza, to protect what the Court found to be Palestinians’ “plausible” right to be protected from acts of genocide. Today, humanitarian reality speaks for itself, as other hon. Members have set out: 470,000 Palestinians face catastrophic food insecurity, and nearly 900 people have been killed while queuing for aid since May—shot by Israeli forces as they waited for food and water.
Last month, alongside 27 other countries, the UK rightly condemned Israel’s aid distribution system as “dangerous” and “inhumane”—my hon. Friend rightly described it as a disgrace. It is clear that humanitarian access has worsened and that the Court’s orders are still being systematically ignored. We must see full compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures, all border crossings reopened, all restrictions lifted and humanitarian operations restored to pre-conflict levels.
Under the genocide convention, the UK has obligations to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law, regardless of whether the UK has reached its own conclusions about genocide itself. The ICJ has made enough rulings. The time for action is now.
Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Ind)
I want to begin by saying that what is happening in Gaza and the ongoing situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not just some random natural disaster. The UN-backed integrated food security phase classification has declared a man-made famine. Civilians are not starving; they are being starved. Israel stopped aid entering Gaza on 2 March and, since 9 March, all electricity has been cut off in Gaza.
It is not enough to repeat the line that Israel must uphold international rights and standards in theory, when it is so clear that it is not doing so, has not been doing so and has effectively been given the go-ahead to continue not doing so. Quite frankly, the UK’s continued support and facilitation of that is shocking to my constituents and the majority of people in the UK.
In the short time I have, I want to raise a point on UNRWA. The Knesset’s decision to ban Israeli officials from engaging with UNRWA, and UNRWA from working in East Jerusalem was wrong, according to what the Government said in January. They also said that if UNRWA found itself unable to operate, they would release a statement, which we have not had. Will the Minister ensure that that follows soon?
I am speculating that the Minister will assert something along the lines that aid must get to where it is needed in theory. To be clear, aid is being blocked and hindered by Israel, the UK’s close and staunch ally. It is obvious that the best way to stop and to address that is not to provide political cover.
John Grady (Glasgow East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing the debate and I agree with everything she said.
This is a time when children are starting school for the first time—a moment of optimism, pride and love for their parents. Imagine being a Palestinian mum and dad, unable to feed their children, unable to take them to school or to pray at a church or mosque, unable to find a doctor when they are ill. This is a moral outrage of the first order. At present, under international law, people are able to act with utter impunity. There is a question of whether the scope of international law is wide enough to cover the atrocities being committed in this and other conflicts.
There is a serious question when people can act with impunity without fear of prosecution and conviction for serious crimes. I ask the Minister to set out how the United Kingdom Government are working with international allies to strengthen international law, so that people cannot act with such impunity, to protect children in Gaza and all the other conflict zones of the present and future. I am obliged, Mr Stringer.
Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)
The situation in Gaza is absolutely appalling, with schools and hospitals bombed, people killed at aid stations, children shot by snipers and people deliberately starved to death. Everyone is trying to understand what further war crimes will have to be committed before the Government will sanction Netanyahu and his entire Cabinet. When we will stop supplying all arms to Israel, including parts for F-35s?
We receive thousands of letters and emails every month. By a long way, the hot and most discussed topic for people in Winchester is the situation in Gaza. It is clear that people are desperate for the Government to use every single diplomatic lever and every bit of power they have to ensure that we get aid in and hostages out, and that we recognise the state of Palestine.
Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for calling this debate, rightly highlighting the siege that is stopping food, water, hygiene, shelter and medical aid getting into Gaza, putting a spotlight on the aid agencies being blocked, and the role that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is playing, or not playing, in getting aid to where it is needed.
It is very important because this is the month of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. I ask the Minister if that will be raised by our UK Ministers at the General Assembly, to make sure that the issue of humanitarian aid access is a key part of our interventions in New York? I pay tribute to the clergy and aid workers at the Catholic Holy Family church in Gaza, who are staying put to help the population despite the evacuation orders. I just met with the Palestine director of the UN World Food Programme, who says that it has the capacity to feed all of the population, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not meeting the needs of the population, and it is too unsafe to collect aid. Their main point, though, is about law and order. Is the technical committee going to come into place and enforce the law and order that is needed for access to humanitarian aid? I would also like to know whether this was raised by Prime Minister this morning at the meeting with President Herzog.
Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for an excellent contribution that clearly came from the heart.
We know that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is appalling and has been for far too long. That aid cannot get in is despicable, but that aid workers are not able to get in is also despicable, not least because we cannot just give food to starving people; we have to introduce a comprehensive refeeding programme to allow them to cope with the food that eventually arrives. We need to be taking that seriously, otherwise we will end up with many more casualties than we expect.
In his response, will the Minister tell us a bit more about the evacuation of injured children to the UK? My understanding is that of all the children evacuated from Gaza, only 0.03% have come to the UK so far. Clearly, we need to do more. If the Minister has time, could he also talk about the need to evacuate scholars—the people of the future for Gaza—to the UK? One of my constituents had been told that she could come, but her family—her children—could not. She has now been told that she cannot come either, because she cannot get a visa.
Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) on her contribution and her tireless work in this space.
The humanitarian picture, especially in Gaza, is beyond desperate. The UN special rapporteur has described the situation as “apocalyptic”. Whether it is the starvation of the population, the repeated strikes on health facilities or the obstruction of aid, it is our duty to ensure that the UK’s response—diplomatic, legal and practical—helps to turn statements into access to safe and sufficient aid, and the opportunity for people to survive.
We must fight for safe and reliable aid delivered at scale, backed by a robust ceasefire that protects aid convoys, warehouses, hospitals and shelters. We must also seek to guarantee the protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel. That means an end to evacuation orders, which clearly cannot be done safely under the current conditions.
Israel must also face the consequences for grave breaches of international law. The Government must support international investigations and the enforcement of international humanitarian law, so that impunity does not become embedded as a grim legacy of this conflict. We must champion a comprehensive political track that delivers the only durable answer: security, dignity and self-determination, including the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a just peace.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. My former colleagues in the aid sector tell me that this is the toughest operating environment that they have ever worked in—some are British, some are international, almost all are Palestinian. My brilliant hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) has powerfully set out how they are risking their lives every day to do their jobs. Most of them are also experiencing their own personal and family humanitarian crises while trying to get relief to others.
One aid agency told me that its staff in Gaza are now living on a single meal a day, and almost all of their families are enrolled in the agency’s own malnutrition programmes. It is set to get worse, as one aid worker put it:
“The situation in Gaza City is incredibly serious. Our staff want desperately to stay on to help their neighbours and communities, but the almost uninterrupted bombardment is merciless…I don’t anticipate that we will be able to hang on in Gaza City for very much longer.”
The only way to restore an effective aid operation is to let the trucks in and across Gaza, protect aid workers at all times and bring an end to the relentless bombardment. That is entirely within the gift of the Government of Israel and within their obligations under international law, and there must be consequences for their flagrant disregard of those obligations. Our constituents see what is happening. As one of my residents put it, “History will ask each of us what we did as we watched the Palestinians starve and die.” Aid workers are risking everything to play their part. I pay tribute to them, and we must do more to play our part too.
Tahir Ali (Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.
In the words of the President of the European Commission:
“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world.”
In this House, in debate after debate, we come and talk about the horrific scenes in Gaza, yet there is very little action. My constituents are telling me that the Government can and should do more, and I agree.
The starting point should be the recognition of Palestine. By recognising the state of Palestine, we can deliver much-needed aid to the Palestinians, but we can do that only if we recognise Palestine. If Israel then tries to obstruct that, we must deal with it, with the force that needs to be applied to Netanyahu, because he has gone berserk. He is going round like a mad dog—a mad dog that has attacked every sovereign country in and around the region, that has no regard for international law, and that disregards everything to do with humanitarian law and humanity. We cannot sit back—
Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.
The humanitarian crisis that we are continuing to see in Gaza is appalling, horrific and unforgivable, and continues to worsen day by day. Since January, there have been 44,000 admissions of children for the treatment of acute malnutrition. We all know that the World Health Organisation, along with the UN, UNICEF and others, recently confirmed that Gaza is facing a man-made famine, with over half a million people affected.
I have often said, as have others, that Netanyahu will only listen to the voice of President Trump and the United States. As President Trump has criticised Netanyahu’s attack on Qatar, I ask the Government: is this not the perfect time to put further pressure on the United States to get an immediate ceasefire that includes full and proper humanitarian aid going into Gaza, facilitating the return of all hostages, and recognising the Palestinian state?
I am pleased that the Government have continued to condemn Israeli settlements and that they recognise that those settlements are illegal under international law. I am also pleased that they are committed to recognising Palestine as a state, but we cannot just sit back and say that we have done all that we can while the unimaginable suffering in Gaza and the occupied territories continues and worsens.
Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this much-needed debate.
We have seen 44,000 children being treated for malnutrition, 2,146 people killed while seeking aid, 131 children killed by a man-made famine, and 5,700 acres of land stolen by the Israeli army in the last three months alone in the west bank. The violence in the west bank is repellent, and a flood of aid—no less—is required in Gaza. I think we all now struggle to find the words to articulate just how horrific what is happening in Gaza and across the west bank truly is.
I will use my time to ask some questions of the Minister. President Trump is due in the UK next week, and he has said that he is not happy with the “real starvation” he is seeing. How can we further work with the US Administration to encourage Israel to open up the Occupied Palestinian Territories to aid at scale and at an unhindered pace?
Ministers have stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is
“incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship”—[Official Report, 20 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 924.]
and they are prepared to take “further action”. As the road map on UK-Israel relations is being reviewed, what further action can be taken now to help alleviate the immediate humanitarian catastrophe?
Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I put on record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for her leadership and wisdom on this topic over a number of years.
Today we have heard powerful testimony and evidence about the desperate need for doctors and aid workers to be able to get into Gaza. There is not a day that goes by where we are not seeing terrible suffering in Gaza: we are hearing about it from our constituents, we are seeing it for ourselves through what is happening, and we are listening every single day to the devastating situation there.
It is vital that we secure access for doctors and aid workers, and that journalists are able to get in so they can tackle the crisis of misinformation in the region. I would like to hear from the Minister today about the international pressure on securing a ceasefire and on ensuring that we can get aid trucks in. We know the UN estimates that we need 600 trucks of aid every day, but we are seeing only half that. How can we maintain that ceasefire through international pressure to make sure that we see long-standing sustainable peace in the region?
John Slinger (Rugby) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this important debate. We must continue to strive to use every possible avenue for delivering supplies, so I welcome the Government’s co-operation with Jordan on airdrops. I want to put on record my praise for the efforts of Ministers and diplomats at a difficult time, but we must all do more.
The Palestinian people must not pay the price for the atrocities of Hamas, yet Israel’s then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza with
“no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel”.
We all know that starvation as a method of warfare is illegal under international humanitarian law. The Gaza strip has now faced what is effectively a siege. The UN-backed panel, as hon. Members have said, has declared that there is now a famine in parts of Gaza. I know that the Government believe that the strip must be flooded with aid, not drip-fed through the piecemeal deliveries of the failing Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
According to the House of Commons Library, the UK considers Gaza’s status as occupied. As the occupying power, Israel is bound by the fourth Geneva convention and Hague conventions, which require it to ensure civilians’ access to food and medicine and to avoid collective punishment. The UK views Israel’s naval blockade as part of that. Blockades are governed by customary international law, including the San Remo manual, which requires legality, necessity and humanitarian access.
Given the humanitarian crisis, and Israel’s role in fomenting it, do the Government have a view on whether we and other countries have a legal right to provide aid by sea? Can the Minister outline whether the Government have looked at whether the Royal Navy could deploy ships off the coast of Gaza or a hospital ship? I am not singling out Israel; I am asking that we treat it by the standards, norms and law that all nations must adhere to, especially democracies. Those rules are fraying before our own eyes, and that is terrible, mainly for the Palestinians, but also—
Martin Rhodes (Glasgow North) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this important debate. The importance of improving humanitarian access to help offset the intolerable hardship, suffering and misery that currently faces those living in Gaza cannot be overstated. For children alone, this war has been beyond cruel. Save the Children, for example, has recently reported that at least 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. To put that in perspective, the capacity of the O2 arena here in London is 20,000 people.
More must be done to pressure Israel to reopen crossings and lift restrictions on movement. The UN-led co-ordination of humanitarian aid must be restored. That will once again allow professional and experienced humanitarian aid agencies to reach people in need at scale with meaningful assistance.
I acknowledge the Government’s position that it is for the international courts, not Governments, to determine if genocide is taking place. However, looking at the evidence that we have all seen—air attacks, ground attacks, displacement of people, targeting of health services, attacks on aid workers, access to food as a method of control, and deliberate and consistent blocking of humanitarian aid—it is difficult to see how those courts will not reach the decision that what we are now seeing is genocide.
Fleur Anderson
On a point of order, Mr Stringer, I omitted earlier to draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I have been on two trips to Palestine: one with Medical Aid for Palestinians and one with Yachad. I wanted to make that clear and set the record straight.
Brian Mathew (Melksham and Devizes) (LD)
It is an honour to speak under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for bringing this vital debate to Westminster Hall.
Before I try to address some of the many important points made in today’s debate, I would like to say that this matter is very close to my heart. As a student in the early 1980s, I spent a year researching in Israel and Egypt, based for much of the time on Kibbutz Re’im, which would be attacked by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023. In those now far-off days, I remember going into Gaza with my Israeli friends to visit their Palestinian friends, to drink coffee and to trade. Those were happy times, and they show that another way is possible.
I should also add that, as a member of the International Development Committee, I have not only travelled to the west bank and witnessed at first hand the effect of IDF teargassing of UNRWA schools, but heard testimony from humanitarian workers, doctors, ambulance drivers and paramedics, sometimes in tears over the utterly appalling targeting of humanitarian staff and children by Israeli drones—shooting children at bomb sites in Gaza, some days in the groin, other days in the legs, and other days in the head. This behaviour is most foul, and has even been acknowledged to be ethnic cleansing by none other than former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It must stop or be stopped by all means possible.
I will shoot through some of the points that have been made, because they are all valuable: the 28,000 women and girls killed; the fabric of life destroyed; the latest attack on Qatar; the disinformation campaign; the provision of rotten food; the US President’s visit and the chance to lobby him; access for aid workers, not just aid; 98% of aid workers killed are Palestinians; 2,000 people killed in orchestrated killing; aid workers killed in Gaza; the trauma and the fear; the Israeli denials, obfuscation and confusion; the attacks on the Palestine Red Crescent; the attacks on hospitals; deaths of civilians; starvation, hunger and famine—it goes on and on and on.
I go to the Lib Dem position: obviously, we say that the situation in Gaza is unconscionable. The Liberal Democrats firmly support human rights, international law and the peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Above all, we believe that all humans should be treated with dignity and have their basic rights respected. Like many millions around the world, we have been deeply devastated by the scenes in Gaza, and increasingly now in the west bank. That is not to take away the trauma experienced by the Israeli people following the heinous attack that Hamas undertook on 7 October. There is no overestimating the grief, anger and trauma that they are still feeling.
We have been deeply concerned by the violence between Israel and Hamas, which has led to mass displacement, immense suffering and loss of life. No Israeli or Palestinian should be killed simply because of where they were born. The UK must play a proactive role in achieving a peaceful and lasting solution that ensures dignity, security and self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians. The Government must finally recognise that they need to do more to ensure that Britain is not complicit in human rights violations, starting by immediately halting all arms sales to Israel.
The Government have still failed to release their legal advice surrounding the ICJ rulings on the occupation. Why? Will they now make clear what advice they have received regarding the legality of actions undertaken by Israel in Gaza? In the light of the confusion caused by the letter from the former Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), is genocide taking place?
We call for a multilateral push to secure a renewed ceasefire to end the humanitarian catastrophe, as well as unhindered humanitarian access into Gaza. We need that ceasefire to hold to ensure that the remaining hostages are released and that the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza is alleviated. Hamas terrorists have shown despicable cruelty even in the release of Israeli hostages and also in the return of the bodies of hostages killed in captivity. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has left countless people in danger and in a state of famine, and many thousands dead.
The UN estimates that women and children have accounted for 70% of fatalities in Gaza since October 2023. It has stated that more than 1.9 million people have been displaced, including more than 1 million women and girls, as estimated by UN Women. The entire population of Gaza—approximately 2.2 million people—is experiencing acute food insecurity, and a famine has been declared in the Gaza strip.
The UN has noted that an estimated 63 women, including 37 mothers, are being killed daily, and 17,000 Palestinian children are believed to have been orphaned since the war on Gaza began. More than 183 women per day are giving birth without pain relief, while hundreds of babies have died because of a lack of electricity to power incubators, and 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe food poverty.
Reports of sexual and gender-based violence in this conflict, including allegations against Israeli forces and about Hamas’s actions on 7 October 2023, are deeply concerning. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has uncovered that nearly 70% of those killed in Gaza over a six-month period were women and children. That is a disproportionately high level, compared with usual conflicts.
Many Israelis are disgusted by the behaviour of their Government. They have been openly demonstrating and even bravely burning their draft cards, which will result in their imprisonment. We need to stand and act in solidarity with them and with Palestinians, who just want to have a peaceful future.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke (Wetherby and Easingwold) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I start by congratulating the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward), not least because of the unique experiences she brings to this debate and the important way she has put it together. I will try to keep my comments as brief as possible, because I think that some 20 Government Members spoke in the debate and the Minister will have a lot to answer and get through.
Obviously, a lot of the speeches have been about humanitarian access, as that is what the debate is about. Many stories have been brought forward about reports from the ground, and it is indeed undoubtable that a famine is taking place. The first thing I would like to probe the Minister on is whether he has had any reports on where all the violence is coming from at the humanitarian aid points. Is it purely from one side, or the other? Has he had any reports on what the security situation is and how that could be improved? I ask because we obviously want to see aid getting in in any way we can. In that sense, you—
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Order. Sir Alec, you are an experienced Member. Can we move to ordinary parliamentary debate? I have not had any reports.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke
I apologise sincerely, Mr Stringer. Has the Minister got the plans for what will be said to the President of the United States to cover these very important aspects? Why is there such violence around the aid points, and what influence can be brought to bear to get more aid in? Some Members have suggested using assets such as the Royal Navy. Indeed, the last Conservative Government were involved in trying to put harbours in and get aid in place. These are all important aspects, because the first point that we come to today is the value of human life and doing everything that can be done to stop what is a man-made famine, wherever the original or ongoing responsibilities for that may lie.
The events going on in the middle east shock us all; indeed, the events of last night shocked us all. That includes the President of the United States making statements that perhaps surprised us all and showed that it may be time for the Israeli Government to rethink whether they can act with impunity, because it appears the Americans were not aware of what was happening and are absolutely furious at what appears to be an attempt to scupper any peace deal. That shows the importance of the Israeli President coming to see the Prime Minister today. It is important to keep those engagements alive, and to be able to look people in the eye and be honest with them. Often, friends can give people the most honest opinion, and it is important to keep those relationships in place.
The hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy said that it is not Hamas that pays the price for the lack of humanitarian aid, but the starving children. What assessment has been made of where aid is going when it is received on the ground, and what can be done to secure that aid for the populations that need it?
We are in a position to leverage influence on the Israeli Government, but I am concerned that declaring recognition of a Palestinian state without calling for the release of hostages may damage the ability of the Israelis to listen to what is said. The significant shifts in foreign policy at this time must be balanced with trying to get a tangible outcome to this event. Everybody wants to see this conflict come to an end. Everybody wants to ensure that the events of 7 October cannot happen again. We must be able to be in the room and to work with the Israelis and the Americans, who have such influence in this area, to ensure that we can reach that position as quickly as possible.
I think the Minister will have plenty of time to answer all the questions that have been raised about humanitarian aid, but I want to draw on the comments made by the hon. Members for York Central (Rachael Maskell) and for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) about getting to the ceasefire and what takes place afterwards. I urge the Minister, if he can, to outline any plans the Prime Minister may have, in meeting the President of the United States, to clarify where American thinking about the day after the war is. We have heard many conflicting reports of the things that may go on, some of which may well be genocidal acts. On that note, is it still the position of the Foreign Office and the Foreign Secretary to support last week’s letter from the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), which said that the Government did not recognise a genocide? Can the Minister outline the thinking behind that? There is plenty of international law that makes the situation opaque, so perhaps he can outline exactly where that thinking came from.
With that, I will sit down, because the Minister has a huge amount to get through. A lot of valuable comments have been made today, and I thank all Members for outlining their points in very precise terms.
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
We have caught up on time, so the Minister has a decent amount of time to speak. I ask him, if possible, to find a couple of minutes at the end for the proposer to wind up.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. There was a rather large number of questions, but I will try to address them as much as possible, take interventions and leave some time for my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward), whose work in this area is so deep and respected across the Chamber, as we have heard. I may not be able to make as much progress through my speech as I might under normal circumstances, but I hope colleagues will forgive me, as many of them will already have heard me speak about the middle east for about an hour in the main Chamber.
My hon. Friend is a stalwart voice on these questions. She has worked on them tirelessly in Parliament and before. I knew her when she was the chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, and many across this Chamber will appreciate not just her work, but the work of the organisation she used to lead.
It goes without saying that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains a scar on our collective conscience. Many Members have asked what the view of history or the view of our constituents will be when this conflict hopefully comes to a close, and that sense rests heavily on me personally and heavily on the Government. More than 64,000 lives have been lost since October 2023. More than 2,000 people have been killed and 16,000 have been injured while seeking aid since May. Those are extraordinary figures in a—I was about to say in a modern context, but in any context at all.
Let me turn first to some of the questions about accountability. I have called on the Israeli Government to conduct independent investigations into a number of strikes on a number of occasions. I agree with the request made by my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy; we will call again for independent investigations, particularly into the recent so-called double-tap strike on the hospital. It is a source of enormous frustration and tension between the Israeli Government and the British Government that, even in cases that have involved British nationals being struck in drone-recorded videos, as in the case of the World Central Kitchen attack, while there have been preliminary investigations conducted within the IDF, we still await, 15 months on, the findings of the military advocate general. I have met those families repeatedly and they, like so many other families affected, await the level of investigation and accountability that would give them satisfaction and provide confidence that the Israeli Government are taking accountability seriously.
One of the contributions suggested that the Government were looking away or turning away. This is the longest opportunity I will have to talk about humanitarian aid since the recess, and I want to reassure colleagues that during that period I met UNRWA, MAP, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and, perhaps most searingly, British doctors recently returned from Gaza, on a number of occasions. I heard directly the tales not just of injuries, as so many hon. Members have recounted during the debate, but of the injuries to children, the similarities in those injuries over particular periods and the impact that had on the British doctors who had gone out, let alone those affected and their families.
Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
The Minister knows from when I wrote to him that what distinguished the shooting up and ransacking of the Action around Bethlehem Children with Disability charity by the Israeli army was the fact that it is a British charity. Will he pursue compensation from the Israeli Government for that British charity for the destruction of the children’s centre in Palestine, as was raised by my constituents in North Curry?
Mr Falconer
If I have not responded to the letter, I will ensure that I do so, and I will add the case to the list that I have described of cases on which we seek further action.
In relation to questions of accountability, there are areas where we need to see much more action but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy rightly pointed out, it is not simply the strikes themselves that impede humanitarian work; there is the question of visas and access for those doctors and other skilled humanitarian workers, just as there are outstanding questions that this House has heard many times from me in relation to so-called dual-use goods. The policy on those goods is applied in such a way that it is very difficult to provide, both in medical and in many other contexts, the kind of equipment and supplies that aid agencies require to carry out their duties.
I turn to the important questions asked by the Opposition spokesperson, the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke). It is regrettably the case that not only is the volume of aid being brought in through the GHF insufficient, but huge volumes of it are being looted. The percentages are difficult to assess, but the WFP thinks that at least 80% of aid trucks are being looted almost immediately, so the ability of anyone to provide assurance that aid is reaching the most vulnerable people is very limited, and any assurance about where that aid ends up is also very limited.
I understand the frustration of hon. Members across the House who often press me to try to find other methods by which aid might be brought into Gaza, whether that is by air or sea. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy has operational experience of the limitations of the alternatives, which have been explored on several occasions. I do not rule any alternative out. Over the recess, along with our Jordanian partners, we supported aid drops into Gaza. Of course, we will consider any measures that we can use to try and assist people.
I will move on to the important questions about medical and other evacuations shortly. However, I am afraid that the inescapable truth is that it is only the UN operation, operating only by land, that can make a real difference to the absolutely horrific circumstances that are described in the IPC report. It is only via land that the volumes of aid required can be delivered; it is only via land, with UN support, that we can ensure that there are sufficient distribution centres; and it is only through those tried and tested mechanisms that one can have confidence about where the aid ends up.
Andy McDonald
I am very grateful to the Minister for giving way. He is a good man who pays an awful lot of attention to these issues. He is telling us about the difficulties regarding aid and he is applying his mind to them. However, as we speak, we have President Herzog in the country.
So I ask the Minister: is that opportunity being used to discuss the root cause of this situation? The failure to transmit humanitarian aid is because of the genocide and war crimes being committed by Israel. Is President Herzog being challenged on his open statements about collective responsibility and saying that there is no such thing as an innocent Gazan? And will he be upbraided for blithely signing his name on bombs that come raining down on Palestinian children? If so, will the Minister make those comments known to the public? We must know how this President is being received.
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Just before I call the Minister to respond, we have done really well on the timings so far. However, if hon. Members are going to make interventions, can they be short and to the point, please?
Mr Falconer
Thank you, Mr Stringer; I will try to speed up as well. I will come to the important points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) shortly, but first, I will just segue from the overall humanitarian challenges to discuss some of the specific areas of work on which I and the rest of the Government have been heavily engaged over the recess period.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy asked vital questions about the evacuation of vulnerable people. Over the recess, we repeated our commitments to assist both medically vulnerable children and a number of scholars, and there are a number of other people, too, whom I and the Foreign Office are trying to get out of Gaza. However, the operation to get anybody out of Gaza is enormously complex and involves a range of operational partners, and the brute truth is that it also involves the Israeli Government. Nobody can leave Gaza without the support of the Israeli Government.
I am pleased to report to the House that we are making progress on some of those cases, but not all of them. It is an overwhelming focus for me—the operational challenge implicit in getting even handfuls of people out of Gaza. This contribution is, of course, a tiny one, given the scale of need outlined in the IPC report and everywhere else. However, despite the small number of people involved, the operational challenge remains great.
I hope to be able to update the House on the specifics shortly. I know that many right hon. and hon. Members have constituents who are personally affected. As soon as I am in a position to give confirmation on specific cases, I will do so. I know that there are so many right hon. and hon. Members who are deeply concerned about this situation. I can give the House the commitment that at the moment there is nothing else on which I am spending more time, and I will continue to do so until as many people as we can possibly rescue are rescued.
My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East asked an important question, which was also asked by other Members. Just to clarify, President Herzog’s visit is a private visit. He has come not at the invitation of the British Government. Nevertheless, given his presence in the UK, we are taking the opportunity to raise a number of very important issues with him.
The Foreign Secretary met the President this morning, and the Prime Minister will meet him this evening. I am sure that they will provide a full account of the points that they have raised. From speaking briefly to the Foreign Secretary, I know that she raised a range of important points, including the importance of Israeli support for our evacuations, over the course of her discussion this morning.
I want to leave my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy some time to respond, but I would like to say that, understandably, Members raised the question of determinations, and I want to make as clear as I can how the British Government approach genocide determinations. They are, obviously, a question for a competent court. No competent court has made a determination, but courts have made provisional findings, which we would clearly abide by. The previous Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), set out in his letter that, of course, as I have told the House on a number of occasions, we conduct assessments of likely breaches across the whole range of our international legal commitments, including in relation to genocide.
As hon. and right hon. Members will know, there are different tests for different elements of international law. As I have always told the House, we take our commitments under all elements of international law, including the genocide convention, extremely seriously. We keep all those assessments under regular review. The spirit of the previous Foreign Secretary’s letter was not to break with what hon. Members have heard me say many times—that it is for a competent court to make determinations—but to seek to give further aeration to the IDC about what our internal assessment looks like on that particular element.
Melanie Ward
It is clear from the sheer number of hon. Members who have spoken in the debate how much this issue matters to us and our constituents—how much horror and disgust constituents across the whole country feel when they see what is being done in Gaza. It was striking that a number of hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald), raised links that their constituencies have with different local charitable organisations that operate all across our isles to try to get help to people in need.
I want particularly to mention my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham), because I know that the World Central Kitchen attack was particularly felt by people who lost loved ones—I do not like to say “lost”: they had loved ones killed in that attack. We send our solidarity to her constituents, who are trying to deal with that still.
The Minister ran out of time before he was able to answer my very specific questions about the restrictions placed on humanitarian NGOs, including British NGOs. Will he write to me with answers to those detailed questions as soon as he is able? That would be appreciated by the many charities, including here in the UK, that are deeply concerned about the future of their operations, as well as their supporters all across our country.
I want to highlight a couple of other speeches—I do not have time to go through loads. First, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) made some important points about international law, including that Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, has the legal duty to ensure that the needs of civilians are met, which it is clearly not, and that the ICJ provisional measures included the need for aid to get in. Another Member raised the need for the Government to bring forward their response to the ICJ’s advisory opinion, which of course was given more than a year ago.
I also mention the contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Laura Kyrke-Smith), who is a former aid worker. She knows what she is talking about and does so much important work on this and related issues across the House.
Finally, the Minister was right when he said that we need to bear in mind how history will view what we are all doing in this moment. The Minister knows the gravity of the moment we are in—famine, ethnic cleansing and genocide. He knows that our actions must be equal to the scale and the gravity of the moment. Members across the House urge us to truly do everything we can in this moment to bring these horrors to an end.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered humanitarian access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.