Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Shockat Adam
Main Page: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)Department Debates - View all Shockat Adam's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I thank all the individuals who signed the petition.
So much has already been said in this debate, so I will concentrate solely on the casualties of this horrendous conflict, particularly children. We have all heard powerful testimonies today, and we have all seen the images on our screens, but we must never forget that the numbers are not just numbers. Behind each and every one is a child, a human being—somebody’s flesh and blood. In the words of a Palestinian grandfather, it was the “soul of my soul” who he buried.
Save the Children recently highlighted that, in 2024, an average of 475 Palestinian children suffered lifelong disabilities. We have heard that potentially more than 30,000 children have been killed and more than 1,000 people have been murdered in the west bank, of which 217 were children. Those children have passed on, but I want to concentrate on the ones who have been left behind. Every month, because of the war, many children suffer traumatic brain injuries and burns, and Gaza has become home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. The question is what we can do about that.
Using private donations, Project Pure Hope has managed to evacuate a grand total of three children so far for urgent treatment in the UK, while 10 children have been brought over by the UK Government for urgent care. We have brought refugees to this country before—we rightly brought more than 200,000 Ukrainians here—so I am sure that we could find the heart, the means and the ways to bring our Palestinian children here if we really wanted to.
I have a constituent who we, along with the University of Leicester, managed to bring over from Gaza as a postgraduate student. Sadly, she contacted me three weeks ago to say that her family home had been bombed by the Israelis; her brother was killed, while her niece Nour Abrahim and her sister-in-law Ronza Muhammad were badly injured. Even with little things such as shrapnel in their legs, there are no antibiotics, so they are getting sepsis. I have written to the Minister about that case, and I know that he would help in any capacity to get these children over here if he could; I am pleading with him to see what his Department can do to bring that family to safety.
Finally, I want the UK Government to commit to two practical steps. First, they should advocate for and help to deliver safe, protected medical evacuation routes for children and other vulnerable civilians. Secondly, they should establish a clear, compassionate commitment to receive a defined number of the most critical medical cases in the UK, particularly where the individuals have close family already here. We cannot overturn what has happened, but at least we can prevent the tragedy from becoming even worse for those who have survived.