Statement by Foreign Secretary David Lammy to the House of Commons on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This weekend, the Israeli Defence Force started a new, extensive ground operation throughout Gaza, Operation Gideon's Chariot. Five Israeli divisions are now operating there.
Prime Minister Netanyahu says that they are going to take control of the Strip letting only minimal amounts of food reach Gazans. Madam Deputy Speaker I quote Prime Minister Netanyahu - "just enough to prevent hunger."
Fewer than ten trucks entered Gaza yesterday. The UN and WHO have issued stark warnings of the threat of starvation hanging over hundreds of thousands of civilians. Madam Deputy Speaker, this is abominable.
Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end, now confront renewed bombardment, new displacement and new suffering. And the remaining hostages kept apart from their loved ones by Hamas for almost six hundred days are now at heightened risk from the war around them.
Madam Deputy Speaker, two months ago the ceasefire collapsed. Since then, the humanitarian catastrophe has rapidly intensified.
For eleven weeks, Israeli forces have blockaded Gaza, leaving the World Food Programme without any any remaining stocks. Israel has repeatedly struck hospitals, with three more hospitals in northern Gaza ceasing operations this weekend.
Yet more aid workers and medical workers have been killed. After last year proved the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel.
The diplomatic deadlock between Israel and Hamas has sadly also hardened. Despite the efforts of the United States, Qatar and Egypt - which we of course support - no ceasefire has emerged.
We repeat our demand that Hamas release all the hostages immediately and unconditionally and reiterate that they cannot continue to run Gaza.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict. Netanyahu's government is planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the Strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.
Yesterday, Minister Smotrich even spoke of Israeli forces "cleansing" Gaza, "destroying what's left", of resident Palestinians "being relocated to third countries".
We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous. And I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
Madam Deputy Speaker, Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7th and the Government has always backed Israel's right to defend itself. We have condemned Hamas and its abhorrent treatment of the hostages. And we have stood with families and demanded their loved ones be released.
But the planned displacement of so many Gazans is morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counter-productive. Whatever Israeli ministers claim, this is not the way to bring the hostages safely home.
Nearly all the hostages have been freed through negotiations, not military force. And that is why hostage families themselves - and many other Israelis - oppose this plan so strongly.
Nor will this plan eliminate Hamas or make Israel secure. This war has left a generation orphaned and traumatised, ready for Hamas to recruit. As we learned in Northern Ireland to defeat terrorists and their warped ideology you cannot just rely on military might. You have to offer a viable political alternative. Opposing the expansion of a war that's killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas.
Madam Deputy Speaker, since entering office, we have taken concerted action on Gaza.
We restored funding to UNRWA. We supported the independence of international courts. We suspended arms export licences. We provided food and medical care to hundreds of thousands of Gazans. We've worked with Arab partners on a plan to ensure a reconstructed Gaza no longer run by Hamas.
And since Israel restarted strikes on Gaza, this Government has demanded Israel change course. Privately, in my conversations with Foreign Minister Sa'ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Dermer, and publicly, in repeated joint statements with my French and German counterparts, we have made clear that Israel's actions are intolerable.
We have raised our concerns in the UN Security Council and before the International Court of Justice. Yesterday, my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister joined leaders from France and Canada strongly opposing the expansion of Israel's military operations. And the UK led a further statement with twenty-seven partners criticising Israel's proposed new aid delivery mechanism and defending the essential humanitarian principles of the international system that the UK did so much to establish in the first place.
Our message is clear. There is a UN plan ready to deliver aid at scale, needed with mitigations against aid diversion. There are brave humanitarians ready to do their jobs. There are 9,000 trucks at the border. Prime Minister Netanyahu: end this blockade now and let the aid in.
Regrettably, Madam Deputy Speaker, despite our efforts, this Israeli government's egregious actions and rhetoric have continued. They are isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world. Undermining the interests of the Israeli people. And damaging the image of the state of Israel in the eyes of the world.
I find this deeply painful, as a lifelong friend of Israel and a believer in the values expressed in its declaration of independence.
As the Prime Minister and fellow leaders said yesterday, we cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration. It is incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship. Rejected by Members across this House and frankly it's an affront to the values of the British people.
Therefore today, I am announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement. We will be reviewing cooperation with them under the 2030 Bilateral Roadmap.
The Netanyahu government's actions have made this necessary. Madam Deputy Speaker, today, my Honourable Friend the Minister for the Middle East is summoning the Israeli Ambassador to the Foreign Office to convey this message.
I say now to the people of Israel: we want, I want a strong friendship with you based on our shared values with flourishing ties between our people and societies. We are unwavering in our commitment to your security and to your future, to countering the very real threat from Iran, the scourge of terrorism and the evils of antisemitism.
But the conduct of the war in Gaza is damaging our relationship with your government. And, as the Prime Minister has said, if Israel pursues this military offensive as it has threatened, failing to ensure the unhindered provision of aid, we will take further actions in response.
The UK, Madam Deputy Speaker, will not give up on a two-state solution. Israelis living in secure borders, recognised and at peace with their neighbours, free from the threat of terrorism. Palestinians living in their own state, in dignity and security, free of occupation.
The two-state solution remains the ideal framework, indeed, the only framework, for a just and lasting peace. But as the House knows, its very viability is in peril.
Endangered not only by the war in Gaza, but by the spread of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts across the Occupied West Bank, with the explicit support of this Israeli government.
There are now weekly meetings to approve new settlement construction. Settlement approval has accelerated while settler violence has soared. Here too, we have acted, repeatedly pressing for a change in this course and direction, sanctioning seven entities last October, and signing a landmark agreement to bolster support for the Palestinian Authority, when Prime Minister Mustafa visited London just last month.
But here too, we must do more. Today, we are therefore imposing sanctions on a further three individuals and four entities involved in the settler movement.
I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators. Today, we are demonstrating again that we will continue to act against those who are carrying out heinous abuses of human rights.
Madam Deputy Speaker, despite the glimmer of hope from January's ceasefire, the suffering from this conflict has worsened. But January showed another path was possible.
We urge Netanyahu's government to choose this path. The world is judging. History will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop.
I commend this statement to the House.
