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Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has expressed his dismay at the dire situation facing civilians in Gaza, following the Israeli government’s rejection of an international statement highlighting the “new depths” of suffering in the region.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Lammy described Israel’s response as “hugely disappointing” and labeled the conditions in Gaza as “grotesque.”
Lammy’s remarks follow a joint statement from the UK and 27 other nations calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and accusing Israel of “drip feeding” aid to the Gazan population.
The statement was issued in the wake of reports of dozens of deaths among civilians awaiting aid distribution. Israel has dismissed the statement as “disconnected from reality” and claimed it “sends the wrong message to Hamas.”
While numerous international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been made previously, the most recent statement marks a notable escalation in the criticism of Israel’s actions.
The statement asserted: “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.”
On Monday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported that over 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while awaiting food supplies over the weekend.
The ministry further stated that in the preceding 48 hours, 33 individuals, including 12 children, had died as a result of malnutrition.
According to the health ministry, the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since the start of the conflict in 2023 has reached 101, with 80 of the victims being children.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Lammy asserted, “When you see innocent children holding out their hand for food and you see them shot and killed… of course Britain must call it out.”
He added, “These are not words that are normally used by a foreign secretary who is attempting to be diplomatic.”
When questioned on whether the described events constituted war crimes, Lammy stated that such a determination was the purview of legal experts at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
He further commented: “To be honest, this has gone beyond lawyers, I want this war to end. The British people look at the horrors on their TV screens and they believe this war must and should come to an end.”
“They are grossly offended by children suffering in the way that we are seeing.”
The government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel in 2024, covering equipment with potential “offensive” applications.
When pressed on the possibility of further restrictions on arms sales, Lammy stated his satisfaction that he had already suspended the transfer of weapons that could be used in Gaza.
Lammy stated that the UK would “do more in the coming weeks” if there was no sign of “a change in behavior from the Israeli government in how it is prosecuting this war.”
He said it would “not be appropriate” to detail what actions the UK government was considering and repeated his call for an “enduring ceasefire.”
“I regret that so far the international community has not been able to bring this war to an end,” he said, adding that the UK “cannot act unilaterally” to do so and had to “work in partnership with our allies.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for “the recognition of the state of Palestine while there’s still a state of Palestine left to recognise.”
He told MPs that Israel’s attacks on healthcare workers and civilians trying to access aid “go well beyond legitimate self-defence and undermine the prospects for peace.”
There have been near daily reports of Palestinians being killed while waiting for food since Israel partially eased an 11-week total blockade on aid deliveries to Gaza in May and, along with the US, helped to establish a new aid system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to bypass the existing one overseen by the UN.
Israel has said the this system, which uses US private security contractors to hand out food parcels from sites inside Israeli military zones, prevents Hamas from stealing supplies.
But the UN and its partners have refused to co-operate with it, calling it unsafe and a violation of the humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality, and independence.
Israel launched a war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 59,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times, and more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed. The healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
Israel rejects a joint statement which says the suffering of civilians has “reached new depths”.
The central city is one of the few parts of Gaza so far spared a major ground operation during the Israel-Hamas war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had “fired warning shots” and disputed the number of reported deaths.
Hundreds of people have died in clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters in Suweida, reports say, as the authorities seek to reimpose order.
More than 100 others were also injured near two sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the Hamas-run health ministry and civil defence agency.
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