Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation

Richard Graham Excerpts

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

The rights of protest are much cherished in this country, and, of course, they are enshrined in law and we respect that. As for what the Home Secretary said, we are all responsible for what we say and she said it in the way that she did.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

First, let me thank the Minister, all his team and the United Nations agencies that are involved—Martin Griffiths and the people from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are on the ground, who obviously are in mourning for their colleagues—for all their incredible work to help with humanitarian aid. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is, in a sense, an intractable problem, because the nature of Hamas and how they are based in Gaza makes it impossible for Israel to defend itself effectively without, surely, breaking the rules of engagement and causing casualties, which everyone here finds very hard to accept? Does he therefore accept that the smidgeon of hope in all of this is that this disaster, which could repeat itself time and again, must be the catalyst for those in the region, above all, to lead on finding a proper political solution?

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is entirely correct. I hope that he will agree with my Oslo analogy and think that should give us all some hope at a very dark time. He is entirely right in what I take him to have meant, which is that Hamas can play no part in the future of Gaza after what has happened. I thank him very much for his comments about UN agencies and officials. There is no doubt that the UN, particularly UNRWA and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is working incredibly hard. I last spoke to Martin Griffiths just after 2 o’clock this morning, and I can tell the House that every sinew is being bent within the UN in trying to end an horrific state of affairs, which has been so accurately set out across the House.