Humanitarian Situation in Gaza
Debate between Tahir Ali and David Rutley(7 months, 1 week ago)
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David Rutley
We continue to have grave concerns about the humanitarian situation on the ground, but those are not sufficient to undermine our judgment that Israel is committed to complying with international humanitarian law in general. We have already talked at length about the export licences and our controls around that. We recognise Israel has the right to defend itself.
Tahir Ali (Birmingham, Hall Green) (Lab)
The Belgian Foreign Minister stated that Israel was engaging in “tactics of starvation”. Last month, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Ireland stated:
“The use of starvation as a weapon of war is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
This month, Belgium’s Minister of Development and Co-operation stated that Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon of war was
“a flagrant violation of international law”.
The Israeli Defence Minister is on record as saying:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”.
When will this Government wake up to the reality that innocent Palestinians are dying and take action to stop them dying from hunger and starvation?
David Rutley
We are working hard to get the aid in, as I have highlighted. That is critical. We are also calling out the Israeli Government, recognising that too many civilians have been killed. We want to see Israel taking greater care to limit its operations to military targets and to avoid harming civilians and destroying homes, as he has indicated.