PALESTINIANS are facing a desperate humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to the widespread destruction of their homes, infrastructure, the health system and the lack of food, water and fuel, the UN warned today.
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The warning came as calls for a ceasefire to halt the relentless attacks that the Israelis have mounted against Gaza since Hamas’s surprise uprising on October 7 continue to grow.
Dozens of local vigils were held across Britain on Wednesday and hundreds of people gathered outside Downing Street, chanting “shame on you,” as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met US Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Hundreds of thousands of people are once again expected to descend on central London on Saturday.
A rally will take place in Trafalgar Square after protests in local boroughs come together in central London at 2.30pm.
Other actions will also take place across the country and a full list can be found on the Stop The War Coalition website.
The British government and the opposition continue to resist calls for them to back a ceasefire, despite the widespread protests and calls from their own MPs.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves stood by Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour leadership position today saying: “I can understand why colleagues are calling for a ceasefire.
“But Keir was very clear in his speech… that the best and the quickest way to get food, to get medicine, fuel, to get water into Gaza and to get the people who are able to get out is through humanitarian pauses.
“Israel has the right to defend itself and bring home its hostages, but everything Israel does must be done within international humanitarian law.”
Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe said, however, that parliamentarians who “continue to justify Israeli air strikes are war-mongering.”
And Labour MP Richard Burgon said that the government “should be using every diplomatic avenue possible to talk to governments of all persuasions to secure a negotiated ceasefire — one binding on all parties — to bring an end to this crisis.”
Mr Sunak discussed the crisis with UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres at the AI summit at Bletchley Park today.
He previously criticised Mr Guterres’s calls for a ceasefire.
Today also marked the 106th anniversary of the Balfour declaration, which campaigners say “paved the way for the colonisation of Palestine and the Nakba” — the “catastrophe” of 1948 when thousands of Palestinians were killed and over 750,000 were forced to leave their homes as Israel was formed.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said in a statement: “The current assault on Gaza is built on over 100 years of colonial violence.
“[More than 100] years later, Britain is still complicit in the violent dispossession of Palestinians.
“The British government approves the export of deadly weapons to Israel, used in attacks on Palestinians.”