1 Ian Byrne debates involving the Department for International Development

Tue 29th Oct 2024

Israel: UNRWA Ban

Ian Byrne Excerpts
Tuesday 29th October 2024

(2 days, 14 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts

Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.

This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record

Anneliese Dodds Portrait Anneliese Dodds
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s constituents for their support of multilateralism, which is surely now more important than ever. The pact for the future came out of the UN General Assembly. To me, that is a demonstration of the power of multilateral action, even in these deeply challenging times. We will use our role in the UN Security Council to ensure that international humanitarian law is upheld and that, as the UK, we play our part in leading responses to humanitarian crises like the one we have been discussing today.

Ian Byrne Portrait Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) (Ind)
- View Speech - Hansard - -

As the hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Hussain) said, on Sunday the UN’s top humanitarian official warned:

“The entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying.”

I spoke to the United Nations special rapporteur in person last week. He was in absolute despair about the lack of action from the world against what is happening in Gaza. I implore the Minister to give him and the House some reassurance that the Government are actively reviewing how the sanctions are working and what else they can do to force Israel to begin to work under humanitarian law.