Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I do not intend to take up too much time in today’s debate as I hope that as many colleagues as possible will have time to speak. The issue concerns us all, so it is right that we all have the opportunity to make a contribution.

As we know, it is just over 400 days since the horrific events of 7 October when over 1,200 people were killed in Hamas attacks in Israel. Over 30 of the hostages taken that day are believed to be still in Gaza. It is beyond time that they were released and returned to their lives and families. It was of course the events of 7 October that triggered Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis we are debating here today. An official death toll of some 43,391 people, of which 16,500 are children, with 10,000 people missing and presumed dead, are shocking statistics, and 72% of those killed are women and children. The Lancet has recently published a report that suggests that the death toll may be closer to 186,000. It has almost got to the point where the numbers are so overwhelming that we are in danger of becoming inured to what they represent.

A few weeks ago, with other colleagues, I attended a presentation that brought home exactly what those numbers and statistics mean. The presentation was given by Professor Nizam Mamode, a volunteer surgeon working with Medical Aid for Palestinians. The event was organised by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed). Professor Mamode is a vascular surgeon of great experience who has worked in numerous war zones and has recently been in Palestine. I thought I had seen and heard it all: the death, disease and sheer brutality reported on our TV screens night after night. But then I went to Professor Mamode’s presentation. He spoke calmly and slowly about his experiences in Palestine, using slides and a video diary, and demonstrated the symmetrical puncture wounds on a dead child’s body—wounds in the region of the body’s major arteries that were too precise to have been the work of a human sniper. They were the work of drones targeted at innocent civilians, and in this case a child.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. The intolerable humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the west bank is precisely why we need an immediate ceasefire and a surge of aid. The recent reports of Israeli troops bombing and clearing northern Gaza and then not allowing Palestinians to return to their lands is surely tantamount to ethnic cleansing and is utterly deplorable. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is up to the international community, including our Government, to call out the Netanyahu regime so that it stops such actions?