Dr Rosena Allin-Khan – who has previously worked as a medic in the region – said food is being used as a ‘weapon of war’ as Israel’s fresh wave of airstrikes claims another 103 lives
A Labour MP has made a passionate plea for Keir Starmer to take tough action against Israel to end the aid blockade.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan – who has previously worked as a medic in the region – said the UK has a “moral responsibility” to act. She called for the Government to hit Israel with tough sanctions and revisit trade agreements between the two nations.
It comes as more than 100 people were killed in latest Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, with seven children claimed to have died in one of the bombings in Jabaliya.
Pressure is mounting on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lift an aid blockade which has lasted for more than 10 weeks. Dr Allin-Khan told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Food is being used as a weapon of war.
“There are a million people facing starvation. We have children who have already died from having food withheld. We have a moral responsibility to act.
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“And if we don’t act immediately, this will be on us. No one can say that we didn’t see this coming.”
Last week UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher call on world leaders to do more to stop the blockade. He told the UN Security Council: “I can tell you from having visited what’s left of Gaza’s medical system that death on this scale has a sound and a smell that does not leave you. As one hospital worker described it, ‘children scream as we peel burnt fabric from their skin.’”
Britain has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza. Israel says it will allow this to happen if Hamas releases hostages seized in the October 7 attack in 2023. On Saturday the Israeli military launched a new offensive, Operation Gideon’s Chariots with the deadliest wave of strikes in months.
More than 48 people were killed in airstrikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis. Some bombs struck houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital.
Among the dead were 18 children and 13 women, hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said. In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Gaza health ministry’s emergency services.
Another strike on a family’s residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defence, which operates under the Hamas-run government.