Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) was dominated by the Gaza War as Sir Keir Starmer condemned Israel’s renewed military offensive as “appalling”.
Three MPs used the occasion to ask the prime minister about the government’s approach to Israel’s war with Hamas.
Claire Hanna, from the Northern Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) accused Israel of committing genocide, saying: “These are very dark days.
“Gaza is a stain on the soul of humanity, and it is a further shame that there is more moral clarity coming from Miss Rachel [a children’s entertainer who has criticised Israel’s actions] on YouTube than there is from many world leaders who are complicit in silence”.
Although Starmer did not call Israel’s actions a genocide, he agreed with Hanna’s description of “dark days”.
“Israel's recent action is appalling and, in my view, counterproductive and intolerable, and we have strongly opposed the expansion of military operations and settler violence and the blocking of humanitarian aid”, he said, adding that the government had suspended free trade agreement talks with Israel and sanctioned “extremists supporting settler violence”.
The prime minister also did not rule out “looking at further action, along with our allies, including sanctions”.
“We need to get back to a ceasefire”, he added. “We need the hostages who have been held for a very long time to be released, and we desperately need more aid at speed and at volume into Gaza, because it's an appalling and intolerable situation.”
Later in the session, the SNP’s Brendan O’Hara challenged Starmer on whether the government viewed Israel’s actions in Gaza as amounting to genocide.
“The prime minister has repeatedly told this House that it is not for him or his government to determine what is and what is not a genocide. But that position is no longer tenable, because at the High Court recently, the prime minister instructed his lawyers to argue that in Gaza, and I quote, ‘no genocide has occurred or is occurring’. So the truth is, his government has made a determination.”
The Labour leader replied that the government was “strongly opposed to and appalled by Israel's recent actions” and “has been absolutely clear in condemning them and calling them out” before hitting back at the SNP’s longstanding opposition to Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
“He talks about peace and security … what do they want to do? They want to get rid of the nuclear deterrent, the single most important capability that we have to keep the UK safe, harming the industry and harming the country.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey then urged the prime minister to push for more aid to be allowed into Gaza and said the US-Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was “clearly failing”.
The prime minister responded by saying that the government was “working at pace … to take whatever measures we can to get that humanitarian aid in. We've been doing that intensively over recent weeks, and I can give him my assurance we'll continue to do that, because that aid needs to get in at speed and at volume”.
Also in Parliament on Wednesday, Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer gave a statement to MPs about the situation in Gaza, in which he called for an “immediate and independent investigation” into what he called “reports of mass casualty incidents in which Palestinians have been killed when trying to access aid sites in Gaza”.
He was referring to accusations from Hamas that Israel had opened fire on civilians while they arrived at an aid distribution centre. The IDF has denied this and released footage appearing to show masked gunmen, who it suggested were linked to the terror group, attacking civilians.
Falconer went on to describe Israel’s new measures for aid delivery into Gaza as “inhumane” and said they “foster desperation and endanger civilians”.
“Israel must immediately allow the United Nations and aid partners to safely deliver all types of aid at scale to save lives”, he added.
Successive Labour MPs, along with some Conservative backbenchers, lined up to condemn the Israeli government’s actions, with some accusing Israel of genocide.
Tooting MP Rosena Allin Khan suggested Israel may be guilty of genocide and described Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “murderous” as she called for him and other figures in the government to be sanctioned.
Falconer responded by saying that he heard “the frustration of the House … and I am sure others too will raise the reports, the deeply distressing reports of recent days, and indeed going even further back in both the West Bank and Gaza”.
And Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker told MPs: “The history books will not be kind to this government, unless we use every form of leverage at our disposal, and our grandchildren will ask why we effectively stood by whilst a people were eradicated by bombs, by bullets, by starvation, and no doubt, the further ethnic cleansing that is still to come”.
However, Labour Friends of Israel chair Jon Pearce MP raised his head above the parapet to condemn Hamas for rejecting the latest ceasefire proposal by Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
He went on to urge the government to “put as much pressure on Hamas to move forward with a ceasefire as soon as possible”.
