Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Tahir Ali Excerpts

Tuesday 14th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

My right hon. Friend, who knows a great deal about these matters, is correct. Hamas have made clear that they do not seek a ceasefire and indeed seek to repeat the awful events of 7 October. As far as the Al-Shifa Hospital is concerned, he, like me, will have seen the horrific pictures on television last night, and I referred specifically to the awful effects on babies that were displayed.

[Tahir Ali (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab)]

Recently, several United Nations experts gave a dire warning to the world, stating they believed that

“the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide”,

and that the time is now “running out” to prevent such a tragedy. Furthermore, they made it clear that Israel’s allies share the responsibility for that and must act now to prevent a genocide from taking place. Given those warnings, will the Minister finally stand with 76% of the British public and call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza?

[Mr Mitchell]

We will continue to focus on the importance of humanitarian pauses, but also try to make sure that, when the opportunity of a pause presents itself, we are able to get critical humanitarian supplies to those in desperate need.