Northern Gaza

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

We are pressing the Israeli Government on a ceasefire, to show the flexibility and take the urgent action required in order to ensure that hostages are released, violence stops and Palestinians can return to some form of dignity and security.

My hon. Friend raises the vital question of injured children in Gaza. There is not enough medical provision—it is of neither the sophistication nor the scale required to deal with the very many children who have been affected by this war, some of whom I met in north Sinai. As I said earlier, those children are the lucky ones: they were able to get to what is admittedly an overstretched medical system, but it is a functional one. As we have heard movingly from the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) and from many other colleagues this afternoon, that is not the case elsewhere. The Government are keeping these issues under review, and when I visited Egypt and north Sinai, I was pleased to announce £1 million of UK aid to try to ensure that the Egyptian healthcare system can help Palestinian children under those circumstances.

Regrettably, since that period, too few people with medical emergencies—both children and adults—have been able to leave Gaza. We continue to raise these issues, and my Department was working on them through the Christmas break. I do not want to talk about specific cases; we have had some success, but limited success, in ensuring that children and adults who either require urgent medical assistance or family reunification are able to leave the Gaza strip. I hope to say a little more about that in the coming weeks.

[Martin Vickers (Brigg and Immingham) (Con)]

Last Saturday morning, a constituent came to my surgery to discuss the situation in Gaza. She reminded me that she had previously visited my surgery exactly a year ago to discuss the situation. I recognise that the Minister was critical of the previous Administration; to some extent, that is justified, but the reality is that the situation remains the same. We can all agree that Hamas should release the hostages immediately, but does the Minister agree that the continued bombardment of Gaza by the Israelis is not of itself going to deliver that? If he agrees, has he made that very clear to the Israelis?

[Mr Falconer]

I regret that the situation does not remain the same a year on. As we have heard, the situation in Gaza, northern Gaza, Lebanon and the west bank is far, far worse. There have been material changes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the wider region, and with the suffering of the Palestinians, the Israeli hostage families and Lebanese civilians, there has been considerable further suffering over the course of the past year. It is clear that the only way to get a lasting, safer, more secure region for Palestinians, Israelis, Lebanese, Yemenis and many others is a proper diplomatic solution, with a resolution in the immediate term through a ceasefire and the release of hostages, but also moving back towards a two-state solution that provides dignity and sovereignty for the Palestinian people. We make that point with force to the Israelis regularly.