David Lammy MP, the UK Foreign Secretary, addressed the House of Commons this week, stating that “Hamas cannot remain in charge of Gaza. But equally, the Israel Defence Forces cannot remain situated in Gaza.”
During his remarks, Lammy spoke of concern for the safety of hostages held in Gaza, detailing ongoing conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and meetings with UK hostage families.
“They remain paramount in the Government’s mind as we head, I hope, towards the ceasefire that we all want,” he said.
The Foreign Secretary criticised the inadequate aid reaching Gaza, noting that “Seventy trucks a day, when we know there should be 500, is not enough.” He highlighted the UK’s allocation of an extra £5.5 million to support UK-Med in Gaza amidst the dire situation of bombed medical facilities and rising disease, including polio.
“The whole House recognises the word ‘flood,’ and we were told in April that Gaza would be flooded with aid. Seventy trucks is nowhere near enough. As a consequence, we hear stories of disease—now including polio—setting in, which is horrific and troubles us all deeply,” Lammy stated.
Lammy endorsed the Biden plan, which he discussed with G7 Foreign Ministers and Arab partners, expressing hope for its adoption by the end of the month. He stressed the need for a new security paradigm in Gaza, suggesting involvement from Arab partners to ensure Israel’s security while eliminating Hamas’s control.
“There is a sticking point with prisoner release as well as with hostage release: what happens on the day after? Israel’s security is paramount. Hamas cannot remain in charge of Gaza. But equally, the Israel Defence Forces cannot remain situated in Gaza. There has to be a new paradigm. It will involve, I suspect, Arab partners and others who can give security guarantees to Israel. It is a complicated picture. We have to work at pace on what comes afterwards,” he explained.
Addressing the West Bank situation, Lammy described his meeting with the new Prime Minister to discuss financial withdrawals and the illegal expansion violating international law.
“It was important for me to meet the new Prime Minister on the west bank to discuss the finances that have been withdrawn and the febrile situation we saw against a backdrop of an unbelievable expansion, which breaches international law that the House stands by. I press the Israeli Prime Minister on that issue greatly. We are of course looking closely at those issues,” he said.
Lammy also commented on Iran’s role in the region, “On the role that Iran plays in sponsoring Hamas, sponsoring Hezbollah and engaging in malign activity, we keep a close eye. I stand by what I said at the Dispatch Box when I was Opposition spokesman on these matters, and I will work over the coming months to review the context of terrorist activity and state threats with the Home Secretary.”
Labour tries to protect its inner city vote whilst not upsetting many of its more senior supporters.
Well to be fair…I would say most people would agree:
1) Hamas are a danger to peace, Isreal and the Palestinians and need removing
2) Israeli has gone well over the line in Gaza….
so yes they are right, Hamas need destroying and the present Israeli executive have gone to far and are not going to deliver peace.
I disagree about Israel going to far. Compared to us in WW2 they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back. They are entitled to be far more brutal, it is just that because they are seen as western proxies they are subject to racist double standards mixed with traditional anti semitism
How has the IDF gone over the line ? They are there to destroy the terrorists that isn’t done yet they are doing exactly what needs to be done
Nice to see a government saying how it is, both sides very much a fault here.
Why what has the IDF done wrong
Well I would say that 40,000 dead and 80,000 wounded is to much. The simple truth is the Netanyahu government are not a pleasant bunch..He’s pushing it way beyond acceptable….and they have very much restricted humanitarian aid into a warzone..which as far as I’m concerned is stepping over the line. They are in contravention of the ICJ legally binding orders on aid. War on Hamas is justified the fact children are now dying in a famine and of preventable disease while Israel locks down Gaza is not. Sadly I think Netanyahu is actually endangering Israel more and more with how… Read more »
So if we are to take hamas numbers at face value and its 40k dead hamas was 40k strong before the war I have no issue with every single hamas terrorist being wiped out civilians die in war that’s what happens we carpet bombed whole city’s in ww2 and we definitely didn’t help the civilians I don’t see how international law is relevant as there terrorists much of the civilian death tool is because of hamas nobody else
Have you forgotten about the aid workers in safe zones that we know they killed?
There are no safe zones, since Hamas fires from there.
Regardless if you make thousands of attacks the change of a mistakes obviously exists. 1% error in 10000 “pull the trigger decision” means 100 errors. How many civilian deaths in takeover of Mossul from ISIS? Allies air forces alone recognizes more than 1300.And that was depleted city already.
Of course this did not appear in the media. Because you are manipulated by the media. Journalists are activists under disguise.
What does any of that have to do with killing aid workers in communication with the IDF in an aid corridor designated by the IDF?
Find me an example of a western army killing so many aid workers.
You can obfuscate all you want but folks round here tend to do their research.
Most of the 40k dead are civilians, not Hamas terrorists.
In mid-1943 RAF Bomber Command conducted a 1000 Bomber Raid on Hamburg deliberately dropping incendiary bombs on worker apartments – 37,000 men, women and children were killed in one night, most were burned to death. We have no moral ground to condemn Israel unless we claim to be the foremost hypocrites.
Of course, we must mention that the US Army Air Force fire-bombed Tokyo suburbs on the night of 9th March 1945 with an estimated 200,000 Japanese civilian deaths!
The question is whether we are answering the question morally or circumstantially. Morally the Allies did horrific things in an attempt to stop what was perceived to be a greater evil. History, quite rightly, has demonstrated this to be the case. It doesn’t defend their actions, rather it mitigates the choices that the leadership made at the time. However there are dozens of examples of similar justification failing in the eyes of history. There is a danger that your point of reference on something that happened 80 years before is compared the current circumstance. The world is constantly developing, changing… Read more »
Ridiculous. Today they would not win WW2.
The Biden plan has absolutely no chance of being implemented. Whatever chances it had, which were extremely slim to begin with, have been overtaken by the emergence of the distinct possibility that Donald Trump will be the next President of the US. It would be foolish for Israel to continue to deal with a President Biden who has been undermining them and not wait until Trump is in charge of US foreign policy. Trump is more pro-Israel, and just as important, has the respect of the Arab states with whom he negotiated the Abraham accords.
We’re not there so it’s hard to feel the real pain of both sides and yes Israel may be going to far in its actions and the civilian toll and destruction in Gaza is horrific but how else are Hamas going to be cleared out of Gaza and will they ever be? Iranian influence and proxies in the south, north, east of Israel, their relations with Russia, China and theirs with North Korea, various African states, BRICS, what happens if all these truly link up? Aren’t our relations and support of Israel, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Gulf states all needed as… Read more »
UK Parliament is in no position to be lecturing anyone about national security after subjecting us to years of systematic anti-native racism and terrorism. Same goes for the US Government and the EU. Collectively they’re the three stooges of border control.