Armed Conflict: Children

Tahir Ali Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Smith]

Absolutely. I recognise my hon. Friend’s expertise: she worked in this area prior to coming to this place. Unfortunately, that statistic is no surprise, given the situation that children face in Gaza.

This Parliament has repeatedly affirmed that human rights are universal, that the rights of the child are not suspended at borders or battle lines, and that international law must be upheld consistently and without double standards. The convention on the rights of the child obliges us to protect children from all forms of violence, including during armed conflict, yet in Gaza that obligation is being flouted with impunity. The United Nations continues to verify grave violations, and keeps parties that violate children’s rights on its monitoring list—a solemn reminder that we cannot look away. I ask the Minister whether the Government will push Israel to agree to and implement a UN action plan to reduce harm to children, and ensure it remains listed in the report until that has been fully achieved.

I commend the work of the Labour Government. The latest figures show that they have provided £241 million in official development assistance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including £154 million in humanitarian funding, between 2023 and 2025. That has enabled more than 500,000 medical consultations, food for about 647,000 people and sanitation for another 300,000. I pay genuine tribute to the important work that my hon. Friend the Minister does, and I thank him for his dedication to the region, both before coming to this place and since he has taken on these responsibilities. He has made huge diplomatic efforts since the horrific and unforgivable events of 7 October.

It is important to return to the United Nations children and armed conflict agenda. I know the Government champion it and have committed additional funding to support its mandate. Its yearly report identified the five most dangerous places to be a child in the world—the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Haiti and Nigeria—and is an important tool, acting as a catalyst for behaviour change.

[Tahir Ali (Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. Does she agree that children are often used as tools, and even child soldiers, in many areas of conflict? In Sudan, for example, the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese armed forces has affected more than 10 million children, 200 of whom have been raped. Wherever possible, we must hold Governments to account, whether in India—where children are being deliberately targeted in Kashmir—Yemen, Sudan or Gaza. We cannot allow these situations, where children are the biggest sufferers, to go on. In my constituency, I see many young men from Afghanistan with mental health issues who are here seeking asylum or as refugees. We must give them the help that they deserve and need.

[Graham Stringer (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind Members that the time for this debate is tight, so interventions should be short and to the point.

--- Later in debate ---

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. My thanks go to my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) for securing this debate.

For me, the most depressing and terrifying departmental questions that we have in this place are Defence questions. We had a session on Monday this week, and it was no exception. There always seem to be questions from nearly every corner of the Chamber about increasing military spending: about more money for more bombs and more weapons—“Let’s make Britain a defensive industrial powerhouse.” Respectfully, if anyone thinks that the route to improving living standards for millions of people in this country is making drones, weapons and the like, I am confident that they are wrong.

When we watch the news and see what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and other places across the globe, do we think that what the world needs right now is more killing, more death and more weapons? I do not. I categorically think that we need less. When I watch the news and see children in warzones, sitting in rubble, traumatised, starving and orphaned—the victims of the horrors of war—I feel overwhelming sadness.

But should we not also think about the weapons that have been used to create this appalling humanitarian situation? In Gaza specifically, we have seen parents carry the bodies of dead children. Doctors have come to Westminster to tell MPs about tending to children who have been shot in the head by Israeli drones. Millions of people have taken to the streets all across Britain to protest at the deaths of innocent civilians. Save the Children—not a fringe organisation—says that more than 20,000 children have been murdered. On average, one Palestinian child has been killed every hour by Israeli forces over nearly 23 months of war. More than 1,000 children killed were under the age of one, while at least 42,000 children have been injured and 21,000 have been left permanently disabled.

During so many urgent questions and statements in the main Chamber, Foreign Secretaries have said that arms sales are a complicated issue, but thousands of children being massacred is not complicated.

[Tahir Ali]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government should cease all arms sales to Israel, given that the Israel Defence Forces general, Aharon Haliva, is on record as saying that 50 Palestinians must die for every death that happened on 7 October, and

“it does not matter…if they are children”?

[Brian Leishman]

I am in complete agreement. I have said that many times in Westminster Hall and the main Chamber, and in the media as well. My hon. Friend is absolutely correct: there is no justification for arms sales to Israel.

It is important to talk about that because, in the wider scheme of things, history will absolutely judge politicians in this place. Politicians will be judged on their complicity in this genocide by continuing those arms sales to Israel. Keeping global pools and supply chains stocked is no justification for killing children and other innocents.

A ceasefire in name only is no cause for celebration because the killing has continued. This week alone, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 32 Palestinians, including several children. We must get our heads around the truth because it is important. The truth is that the genocide has not stopped.