Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)

My Lords, I too thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Since this is my first occasion to speak in the Chamber since my predecessor, my noble friend Lord Newby, retired as leader of our group, I put on record my appreciation to him and express how much all of us on these Benches admired how, in tumultuous and ultimately successful times, he led us for the most recent nine years. While this Statement is justifiably focused on the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the inhumane treatment of the Israeli hostages, I put on record my dismay that the world’s worst humanitarian crisis—worse than Ukraine and Gaza combined—carries on in Sudan. One hundred Sudanese civilians have died today of hunger. I hope the Government will bring forward a Statement, as penholder in the Security Council for Sudan, with an update soon. Now there is famine in Gaza too. Avoidable, manmade famine should have been an impossibility in 2025. Manmade means deliberate. It means that women and children are dying of hunger primarily as a result of the political and military decisions of men, increasingly detached from the humanitarian needs of civilians. In Gaza, the provision of wholly inadequate supplies of food from the GHF has become a killing zone, and the IDF operations in Gaza now mean that there is no safe area. Indeed, the most dangerous areas are those that have been defined as safe. The casualty levels pay testament to this. The images of the emaciated hostages treated so brutally by Hamas terrorists were responded to by the families of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum so powerfully and movingly, as they also speak of their opposition to the continuation of the violence and the tactics of the Netanyahu Government. The Minister knows, because I have stated it on many occasions, that these Benches have called for the recognition of Palestine as a state for 45 years—17 years before Hamas was formed, so it cannot possibly be close to being seen as a reward for its actions. We welcome the position of the Government but did not share the conditionality, which was out of the hands of the Palestinians. That said, recognition could come in less than three weeks, but the Government must now indicate that the conditions they have set are not being met. Indeed, the recent statements by Netanyahu mean that it is impossible they will be met. He and the extreme Ministers in his Government are moving to expand military campaigns in civilian areas, illegally expand territory and widen the area for settlements in the West Bank. If the UK recognises Palestine, as we hope it will, it must surely be honoured as an act that is vital, urgent and needed to prevent the 1967 borders from being reduced and removed altogether. Bulldozing and occupying civilian areas in that border area is a war crime. Collective punishment is a war crime. Weaponising food and medicines is a war crime. That is why we believe that the UK should sanction these extreme Ministers and Netanyahu, that there should be no arms sales to the Israeli Government at all and that the Government should now conduct and publish an urgent human rights assessment, as allowed for in the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement. The grim reality is that, unless there are specific, deliberate and measurable interventions, eloquent statements and diplomacy will not be an effective means to end the suffering and it will continue. The civilians who are starving should not have to wait.