Gaza: Ceasefire

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

Let me reassure the noble Baroness that we are doing precisely that: we are working with all our allies. One thing is very clear: if anyone was listening to the “Today” programme this morning, they will certainly have heard former Israeli ambassadors express deep concern that these actions will impact on the possibility of relationships with Arab countries. We actually saw some positive signs of a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia; all of this risks that. We should focus much more on ensuring that unity of diplomatic effort to get the ceasefire back on course and have further, longer peace talks so that we can both defend Israel and protect Palestine.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, we will hear from the noble Lord, Lord Sahota, next and then the noble Baroness, Lady Foster.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, last year the EU representative for the Middle East said on TV that “before 7 October, Gaza was an open prison and after 7 October it became an open graveyard”. What does the Minister make of that statement?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My noble friend highlights many comments that we have heard on previous occasions in this Chamber. The situation in Gaza has been horrific, but there is no doubt that the events that caused those hostages to be taken were also horrific. We have also got to think about the levels of sexual violence that those hostages were put to. There is no escaping the fact that we have to focus on the future. We have to ensure that we get proper aid and support into the Occupied Territories and Gaza and we have to focus on a much longer-term solution, which this ceasefire agreement gave. There were stages and we knew it was not going to be easy, but all our diplomatic efforts are going to be focused on that.