Israel and Palestine
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Amy Callaghan(11 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Alison Thewliss
The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. I point to the situation of Dima, a student at Glasgow University who worked for the World Health Organisation. Her life, her child’s life, and her family were lost to bombardment. She had done nothing wrong. She was doing her very best to support people, as are many medical professionals in Gaza, who are trying their very best to make sure that people are looked after in these most desperate of circumstances.
Amy Callaghan (East Dunbartonshire) (SNP)
There are 350,000 people in Gaza suffering from infections. There are 46,000 who are injured and cannot be treated. Procedures are being carried out without anaesthetic. Gaza’s health system has been reduced to just a third of its pre-conflict capacity. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that there is an urgent need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire?
Alison Thewliss
I would agree. The difficulty is that there is no end to this conflict in sight. We cannot see what the terms for ending this conflict will be as things stand, but we do know that all conflicts eventually end. They end with a ceasefire; they end with a piece of paper signed; they end with agreements being reached. The UK Government’s role in this is to seek to reach those agreements, not to seek to stand in the way of them.
I would also like to mention the 52,000 pregnant women in Gaza right now. Some 5,500 babies have been born in the past month—183 every single day. Those babies are being born in the most traumatic of circumstances. Giving birth can be traumatic enough at the best of times, let alone without hospitals, medical care or even anaesthesia. Women are having caesareans without painkillers, while awake, and under bombardment. That is no way to bring babies into this world. Other women who have had to flee their homes are in camps lacking sanitary provision, privacy and dignity. When will they see an end to this conflict? When will they be able to see hope for their babies and their families?
I very much support the aims of the petitions here today. I look forward to hearing other people’s contributions to this debate. My Glasgow constituents are very clear that there needs to be a ceasefire now.