Northern Gaza

Chris Murray Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I thank my hon. Friend for the question but will not provide a further update on the individuals that she raised. As I have said, we try not to trail sanctions decisions before they are taken. I recognise the strength of feeling and reassure her and the whole House that we want to see no further illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; that includes both the west bank and, of course, the Gaza strip, north and south.

[Chris Murray (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab)]

I recognise the work that the Minister is doing on this intractable issue and the frustration that we all share at the lack of progress, but the fact remains that not one hospital operates in northern Gaza, healthcare workers have been detained and targeted, and medical aid is blocked. So many of my constituents have written to me expressing their outrage about that. The systematic destruction of a healthcare system is a crime against international humanitarian law. What steps can the Government take to try to protect what remains of Gaza’s healthcare system?

[Mr Falconer]

I know the concern that is felt in Edinburgh, as it is elsewhere. We have to be honest about the medical system in Gaza, which is insufficient on almost any of the points raised this afternoon. Of course, there is still provision—I think my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh) mentioned the Indonesian hospital, where we believe patients are sheltering in facilities that are not properly functional and unable to provide the quality of care that anyone should reasonably expect at a hospital. I fear that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) already knows, there is not a sufficient medical system in Gaza to protect, but we will continue to raise these issues and do all that we can to ensure that that situation changes rapidly.