With permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the Middle East.
I’ll begin on Syria.
We have been horrified by the recent violence in the south, including civilian deaths.
Clashes between Druze and Bedouin militias have quickly escalated into intense fighting between government forces and further Israeli strikes on the Syrian military.
As I said directly to Foreign Minister Shaibani we want to see the fighting ended, civilians protected and the rights of all Syrians upheld.
The violence in Suwayda must be investigated and those responsible held accountable.
We want humanitarian access to be restored, aid delivered and Syria’s sovereignty must be respected.
The UK can be proud of our support to the Syrian people over many, many years.
And a stable Syria matters to the UK’s national interest, for terrorism, for irregular migration, for regional stability.
We must work to prevent extremism, sectarianism or lawlessness taking hold now that Assad is gone.
That’s why we are backing a sustainable ceasefire and that is why we support an inclusive transition.
And that’s why I visited Damascus recently to support and to press the new government to meet its commitments.
I will now turn to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It’s two and a half months since Prime Minister Netanyahu restarted offensive operations.
The IDF has driven Palestinians out of 86 per cent of Gaza, leaving around two million people trapped in an area scarcely over twenty square miles.
Whatever this Israeli government might claim, repeated displacement of so many civilians is not keeping them safe. In fact, it’s quite the reverse.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the new Israeli aid system is inhumane, it’s dangerous and it deprives Gazans of human dignity.
It contradicts long-stablished humanitarian principles. It creates disorder Hamas is exploiting with distribution points reduced from 400 to just four.
It forces desperate civilians, children among them, to scramble unsafely for the essentials of life.
It’s a grotesque spectacle, wreaking a terrible human cost.
Almost 1000 civilians have been killed since May seeking aid, including 100 over this weekend alone.
There are near daily reports of Israeli troops opening fire on people trying to access food.
Israeli jets have hit women and children waiting for a health clinic to open.
An Israeli drone has struck down children filling water containers which Israeli officials blamed on a ‘technical error’.
Hamas is contributing to the chaos and taking advantage of it.
I utterly condemn the killing of civilians seeking to meet their most basic needs.
The Israeli government must answer:
What possible military justification can there be for strikes that have killed desperate, starving children?
What immediate actions are they taking to stop this litany of horrors?
What will they do to hold those responsible to account?
Mr Deputy Speaker, I have said before I am a steadfast supporter of Israel’s security and right to exist.
I treasure the many connections between our peoples
And the horrors of October 7th must never be forgotten.
But I firmly believe the Israeli government’s actions are doing untold damage to Israel’s standing in the world and undermining Israel’s long-term security.
Netanyahu should listen to the Israeli people, 82 per cent of whom desperately want a ceasefire.
And to the hostages’ families because they know it offers the best chance to bring their loved ones home.
Those hostages may be hidden in cramped tunnels under the ruins of Gaza but we will not forget them or Hamas’s despicable actions and we will continue to demand their unconditional release.
This offensive puts them in grave danger.
But still Netanyahu persists.
Indeed, Minister Katz has gone further proposing to drive Gaza’s entire population into Rafah, imprisoning Palestinians, unless persuaded to emigrate.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is a cruel vision which must never come to pass.
I condemn it unequivocally.
Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.
Many Israelis themselves are appalled.
A former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said ‘it marches us into the abyss’. He was right.
Mr Speaker, today I joined a joint statement by 25 Foreign Ministers with a simple, urgent message:
the war in Gaza must end now.
There is no military solution.
Negotiations will secure the hostages.
Further bloodshed serves no purpose.
Hamas and Israel must both commit to a ceasefire now.
And the next ceasefire must be the last ceasefire.
I thank the US, Qatar, and Egypt for their tireless efforts.
And I am sure all Members share my intense frustration it has not happened.
Until there is such a breakthrough, we must keep doing all we can to relieve suffering.
UK aid has saved lives.
Reaching hundreds of thousands with food, water, hygiene, and sanitation, and essential healthcare.
And under the most appalling circumstances our aid is saving lives today.
That includes, the almost nine million pounds the UK has provided to UK-Med, since we entered office,
reaching half a million patients inside Gaza, 24,000 in the past fortnight alone.
Like 3-year old Razan.
UK-funded medics removed a bullet from her neck after nearly three hours of surgery.
These doctors and nurses working in the most extreme conditions are true heroes.
They deserve the thanks and admiration of the entire House.
We are also working, of course, multilaterally.
The 149 trucks from the World Food Programme and UNICEF entering Gaza in recent day included food supplies funded by the UK.
And thousands more trucks laden with aid paid for by British taxpayers can enter, the moment the Israeli government lets it.
Today, I am announcing an extra £40 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza this year, including seven and a half million for UK-Med to sustain their vital operations in Gaza and save more lives.
Mr Deputy Speaker, accompanying the horrors in Gaza, there is an accelerating campaign to prevent a future Palestinian state in the West Bank.
It’s embraced by Netanyahu, it’s encouraged by his Ministers. It’s driven by an extremist ideology which wants to suffocate the two-state solution, the only route to a lasting peace and security.
We see it in the unprecedented pace of settlement expansion.
In the shocking levels of settler violence, even settler terrorism,
for that is what the most egregious ideological attacks are.
And in the deliberate attempts to squeeze the Palestinian Authority, unjustly denying it access to its own funds, and it harms Israel’s long-term interests.
Now, the Israeli government is reintroducing plans to construct new units in the E1 area of occupied east Jerusalem.
If built, this settlement would separate the West Bank’s north from its south and Palestinians in the West Bank from East Jerusalem.
These plans are wholly unacceptable.
They are illegal.
And they must not happen.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we are also striving to keep open the prospects of a two-state solution.
UK assistance has been preserving the Palestinian Authority, contributing to essential Palestinian workers’ salaries and supporting them to progress critical reforms.
Today, I can confirm we are enhancing our support, providing £7 million to strengthen the PA and Palestinian governance, implementing the agreement signed by myself and PM Mustafa earlier this year.
And we’re delivering the reform plans President Abbas has set out.
I can also confirm that we are providing £20 million to support UNRWA’s many services for Palestinian refugees.
And alongside this support, we are leading diplomatic efforts to show there must be a viable peaceful pathway to a Palestinian state, involving the PA, not Hamas, in security and governance of the area.
Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.
Israeli Ministers should support the PA – not actively undermine its economy, as Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are doing.
The UK is co-leading with Egypt the humanitarian and reconstruction track for the forthcoming Two-State Solution Conference.
And we are pushing to agree plans for a credible next phase in Gaza with a responsible, reformed PA at their core.
So we turn any temporary ceasefire into a lasting peace.
Mr Deputy Speaker, in our year in office, this Labour Government has acted to address this horrendous conflict.
We restored funding to UNRWA, after the Tories froze it.
We suspended arms export licenses, when the Tories declined to act.
We have provided nearly a quarter of a billion in humanitarian assistance, this year and next, getting medical treatment and food to hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza.
We have stood with the hostage families at every stage.
We’ve worked with Jordan to fly medicines into Gaza, with Egypt to treat medically evacuated civilians, with Kuwait and UNICEF to help children in Gaza.
We’ve delivered three sanctions packages on violent settlers, suspended trade negotiations with this Israeli government and sanctioned far-right Israeli Ministers for incitement.
We have defended the independence of international courts. We signed a landmark agreement with the Palestinian Authority, and hosted the Palestinian Prime Minister in London, pushing for the reform it needs.
We called for…
worked for…
and voted for…
an immediate ceasefire and the release of the hostages at every possible opportunity.
And we will keep doing so until this war is over, Hamas release the hostages and we finally have a pathway to a two-state solution.
I commend this statement to the House.
