Gaza: Humanitarian Situation

Debate between Leo Docherty and Lisa Nandy

Monday 4th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State to make a statement regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Leo Docherty)]

A tragedy is unfolding in the middle east. Israel has suffered the worst terror attack in its history, and Palestinian civilians are experiencing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis. As the Foreign Secretary made clear, last week’s agreement was a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. This pause has provided an opportunity to ensure that much greater volumes of food, fuel and other lifesaving aid can enter Gaza.

On 24 November, the British Government announced a further £30 million-worth of humanitarian assistance, tripling our existing aid budget for the Occupied Palestinian Territories this financial year and bringing it to a total of £60 million. During the pause, the fourth UK aircraft, carrying 23 tonnes of humanitarian aid for Gaza, arrived in Egypt, bringing the total amount of UK humanitarian aid provided by British aircraft to 74 tonnes. That aid is now being dispersed to the United Nations to support critical food, water, health, shelter and protection needs in Gaza, and to pre-position emergency supplies in the region. We are also actively exploring other aid routes, including by sea.

The pause that ended last week was a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We have said repeatedly that we would like to see an extension. UK humanitarian funding will continue to support trusted partners to provide humanitarian assistance, and negotiate humanitarian access, in Gaza. The UK will continue, in conjunction with our international partners, to advocate internationally on humanitarian priorities. These include respect for international humanitarian law, the need for fuel, humanitarian access, humanitarian pauses and an increase in the types of assistance. We are urgently exploring all diplomatic options to increase that, including urging Israel to open other existing land borders, such as Kerem Shalom.

We welcome the intensive international co-operation, including efforts from Qatar and the USA, which led to the agreement, and we thank partners for their continued work. We remain committed to making progress towards a two-state solution.

Britain’s long-standing position on the middle east peace process is clear: we support a negotiated settlement leading to a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. The UK will continue to work with all partners in the region to reach a long-term political solution that enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.

[Lisa Nandy]

Given recent events, it is surprising and regrettable that neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Secretary is making a statement today. The reality is that this conflict has sadly reached another phase, and many more innocent lives will be lost if we do not act now. We urge the Government to continue to push for another cessation of hostilities and for all remaining hostages to be freed. To be clear, Israel must not besiege or blockade Gaza. It must comply with international law and protect innocent lives and civilian infrastructure, and ensure that attempts to address the humanitarian catastrophe are ramped up quickly.

In the last few days, partners on the ground have become increasingly concerned about the safe zone at al-Mawasi, with reports suggesting that aid is not reaching those who are there. Have the Government held talks with Israel and others to ensure that it does, and to seek assurances that Palestinians who fled there not will not be moved further still? The Minister will know that that is a key concern of Arab states. Shelters are severely overcrowded, dysentery is spreading, and the risk of cholera is now significant. That must be mitigated now. Is there is serious plan to deal with sewage and to distribute medicine and vaccines? It is winter in Gaza, where nearly 2 million people are displaced; many are in tents or in the open air. I urge the Minister again to follow the US’s lead and appoint a humanitarian co-ordinator to get the trucks moving more quickly, to get fuel in and to work towards the opening of Karem Shalom.

The UK and partners must redouble efforts towards an enduring cessation of hostilities and a lasting political solution. Israel must be assured that Hamas cannot carry out an attack like 7 October ever again. But, to build a lasting peace, we must assure a generation of Palestinians that there is hope: that they, their children and their grandchildren can expect the security and opportunity that is their right, with a plan for children both to prevent their deaths and to prioritise their lives, and a clear message that there can be no reoccupation or reduction of Gazan territory and that those displaced have the right to return home.

I urge the Government to play their part in ending the illegal settlements and settler violence in the west bank and to create a plan for the reconstruction and renewal of Gaza. We must do more without delay to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in front of us as we simultaneously work towards a better future. Many more lives will be lost if we do not act now.

[Leo Docherty]

I am grateful for my counterpart’s constructive tone. We are in agreement: we are pushing for a further pause, which we regard as imperative. The success, as it were, of the last one showed the utility of a pause in terms of the increased flow of humanitarian support, and we continue to strain every sinew in our diplomacy to aim for that. The Foreign Secretary made that argument to his various ministerial colleagues last week and will continue to do that with his counterpart and ministerial counterparts right across the middle east.

The hon. Member mentioned the safe zone. We continue to monitor that, and officials in the region are seeing how it unfolds with regard to the humanitarian impact. She is right to draw the House’s attention to the grievous humanitarian impact of disease. We are confident that channelling our funds through the UN agencies—the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and UNICEF—is the right way to go about that, but the scale of increase of need is hugely alarming, and we are painfully aware that women and children often bear the most unfortunate brunt of such impacts. I assure her that we are redoubling efforts. Clearly, our financial contribution has tripled, but that goes in hand with our political efforts, because it is only through a lasting peace, which she referred to, that this will be resolved.

The humanitarian component is of utmost urgency, but we must not forget the political component, which runs in tandem. Our stance on the illegal settlements in the west bank and our long-standing support for a sustainable solution with Palestinian statehood at the heart of the region’s future are undiminished. In addition to our humanitarian efforts, in our political and diplomatic efforts we will continue to argue for Palestinian statehood as the seed for a long-term solution in the region.