Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the minister. As Israel cuts off Northern Gaza from essential supplies, it continues to strike Palestinian civilians whilst demanding their displacement. The attacks, such as those on Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza on Sunday night, show that there’s nowhere safe to go. The sight of a patient on an IV drip burning to death in the flames of an airstrike on the tents of refugees will be the abiding image of this genocide.
The 400,000 or so civilians left without food or supplies in Northern Gaza are increasingly subject to airstrikes, artillery, and small arms fire from Israeli forces. 11,500 children killed in Gaza in a year — that’s one classroom full of children every day for a single year.
In Lebanon, we see Israeli strikes killing civilians. But now we hear, in addition to invading UNIFIL posts, there are reports of attacks on UNIFIL forces of a chemical nature. As to UNIFIL, I acknowledge the foreign secretary’s call to Israel and all parties to uphold their obligations. But repeatedly calling on Israel to uphold their obligations has no impact unless they are forced to change. Israel continues to commit further outrages and breaches of international law in Lebanon, in the West Bank, and through its starvation and targeting of civilians in Gaza.
Even Lord Cameron has today talked about individual sanctions for far-right Israeli ministers. Will the foreign secretary consider those and other measures? A partial arms embargo has not stopped the attacks on civilians either. Surely that has to be extended.
The government told me in a written answer that the U.S. government manages the sale of F-35 aircraft to Israel and the F-35 Global Supply Chain. So, in the interest of protecting civilians in Gaza, I ask the government to open discussions with the U.S. to remove Israel from the end-use destinations of the F-35 Global Supply Chain.
There are many partners for peace in the region whose efforts are rejected by Israel, but the UK has an important role to play. So, given that recognition of Palestine is a prerequisite for peace and not a byproduct of it, is it not now time to join the global majority in doing so?
