Gaza and Humanitarian Aid Debate
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Rupa Huq
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Gaza and Humanitarian Aid
Rupa Huq Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Ayoub Khan
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. I think we are all singing off the same hymn sheet when it comes to what the UK should be doing.
Experts say that 2,000 trucks are required to address the current crisis, but only 52 are coming in at the moment. Aid convoys are being blocked not only at the checkpoints by Israeli soldiers; we have all witnessed some of the Israeli civilians blocking aid at crossings like Kerem Shalom and Nitzana. While the Israeli Army are competent to disperse thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv within minutes, they choose not to disperse the fewer than 100 protesters blocking life-saving aid. Even once they get through that blockade, they are shot at by IDF forces, either by snipers, drones or other military means.
We all know about the killings of the seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity, which included three British aid workers. That was despite the Israeli Army being given co-ordinates and information about locations.
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
The hon. Gentleman mentioned aid workers. Does he not agree that it is not just aid workers but those in the media, teachers, doctors and medical staff where we are seeing a discrediting and delegitimisation of the UN? He mentioned buildings, even the oldest church in Christendom. It feels like even within the rules of war, something has gone wrong here.
Ayoub Khan
Of course. The biggest problem we have is that journalists are not allowed in. One has to think about the reason why journalists are not being afforded the opportunity to report impartially—it is not happening. If the Israeli Government have nothing to hide, we would expect them to be welcoming journalists into the war zone. The risks are down to the journalists. However, we have seen this on an enormous scale. Journalists believe that they are being targeted specifically, so there is no reporting from within.
This is collective punishment on an enormous scale. There are no red lines for Netanyahu’s Government. The actions of the IDF over the past 369 days are not those of a moral army as Israel claims, but actions that have crossed every moral and legal boundary. Netanyahu’s pursuit of Gaza’s destruction is relentless and will not stop unless forced to do so. I welcome the reinstatement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees funding by this Government, but we must do more.