David Lammy has said there is “no excuse” for Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid reaching Gaza.
In his statement at the UN Security Council, the foreign secretary also accepted the world has “failed” to bring about the ceasefires so desperately needed in the region.
In a situation said was “devastating and frankly beyond comprehension” and “getting worse, not better” Lammy also condemned Hamas who “still cruelly holds onto the hostages, including British national Emily Damari, extending their families’ torment even further.”
In a speech given over 400 days after Hamas launched the October 7 terror attack, Lammy said:”Winter is here. Famine is imminent.
“And 400 days into this war, it is totally unacceptable that it’s harder than ever to get aid into Gaza.
“In October, just 37 humanitarian trucks entered the Strip each day. It’s the lowest average in the last year.
“The situation in northern Gaza is a nightmare of disease, destruction and despair.
“Over three hundred aid workers have now been killed. It’s the highest number in UN history.”
“More children have been killed than in any recent conflict anywhere in the world.”
The foreign secretary’s speech came on the same day an UNRWA aid official told Reuters on Monday that a convoy of 109 aid trucks was violently looted on 16 November after crossing into Gaza, resulting in the loss of 98 trucks.
But Lammy refused to point the blame for the disaster in just one direction.
“Hamas still cruelly holds onto the hostages, including British national Emily Damari, extending their families’ torment even further,” said Lammy.
“In the West Bank, an environment of impunity exists for extremist settlers.
“And since October 7th, conflict has spread, engulfing of course, Lebanon….
“And there is no excuse for violations of international humanitarian law. It needs to be respected – by all sides.
“No excuse for malign Iranian activity, destabilising the region. It needs to stop.”
He claimed the UK would not give up on diplomatic efforts to try to force an end to the conflict.
“The world has failed to bring about the ceasefires so desperately needed in Gaza and Lebanon,” he said. “Failed to break the cycles of violence. But the UK will not give up.
“Not when there is so much, frankly, at stake for civilians in the region, who suffer so greatly.”
Lammy said it “is never too late for peace” and added:” The longer fighting continues, the deeper the depths of pain, of anger, which corrode the bonds of common humanity on which a lasting peace must necessarily be built.
“When the opening comes, we must be ready to seize it.
“We need detailed plans for turning an immediate ceasefire into a lasting solution.
“A strengthened and reformed Palestinian Authority should be at the centre of Gaza’s future recovery, security and governance.
“And we’ve got to give the people of the West Bank and Gaza a political horizon, a credible, irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state.
“In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181.
Ever since, the Palestinian people have been waiting, waiting for seventy-seven years for a land that they can call their own.
That wait must end.”
But he admitted “the Israeli people, who are still threatened by groups dedicated to their destruction, have waited too long for the peace and security promised when their nation was born.”
Lammy added:”We must not give up our pursuit of a future where all people of the region can live side by side in peaceful co-existence, including Israelis and Palestinians.”
He ended his speech saying:”Ending the war. Securing a lasting peace, with a two-state solution at its core. This is what the region needs. And this is what the world wants.
“And this is what we will keep striving to achieve.”
Earlier Lammy had delivered a rebuke to President Putin after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan.
