UK steps up calls for more aid to Gaza after Egypt border allows first lorries in
The UK is working closely with the UN, Egypt and Israel to “ensure more aid can get in” to Gaza following the reopening of the Rafah border crossing.
The crossing point between Gaza and Egypt reopened to humanitarian aid on Saturday morning, but only 20 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent to the Palestinian Red Crescent organisation were allowed through on the first day.
The UN has warned that the situation in Gaza “has reached catastrophic levels” as it urged all parties to ensure that the “critical” supplies reach Gazans unimpeded.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the UK was “arguing at the highest level for further humanitarian assistance” for Gaza as the conflict between Hamas and Israel enters its third week.
“This is a very welcome first step, but it is not the end. We clearly need to work very closely with the United Nations and with Egypt and Israel to ensure further consignments of humanitarian goods can come into Gaza,” he told Sky News’s Sunday with Trevor Phillips programme.
“We’re coordinating closely with those partners and have been arguing, at the highest level, for further humanitarian assistance.”
Responding to fresh claims from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) that it is planning a ground invasion in Gaza, Mr Jenrick added that the Government has “confidence that Israel will take all the steps that it can in the circumstances to avoid civilian lives being lost”.
He added that the “real tragedy” is Hamas “enmesh themselves” within civilian areas, “using innocent Palestinians as hostages to their own political aims”.
Asked about future plans that could see Gaza have its facilities – like water and electricity – cut off long-term and stop Palestinians crossing the border for work, Mr Jenrick says that is “a decision for Israel”.
He said the UK’s priority was getting British nationals out of Gaza, but declined to comment on whether there would be a scheme established for taking Palestinians refugees.
“At the moment, priority is simply to get the British nationals out of Gaza and to ensure there is as much humanitarian relief there. That that’s the first step,” he said.
“It’s quite a long way ahead before we could reach the point where we might be able to see more people leaving Gaza. At the moment Egypt, for example, is not willing to admit refugees, and we understand the reasons behind that.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said Israel has not just a right but a duty to its citizens to bring home hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
The families of those taken hostage by Hamas met Mr Sunak on Wednesday to urge him to put greater pressure on the Israeli government to do more to secure the release of their loved ones.
Writing a reflection of his two-day visit to Israel, Mr Sunak said he had pressed the point to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
He added, however, that he was clear “this must be done in line with international humanitarian law and taking every possible step to avoid harming civilians.”
He said: “The families are bearing their worries with dignity and bravery. But looking into their eyes, you could see the agony they were going through. As a father, a son and a husband I can only begin to contemplate their pain: a pain shared by too many other Jewish families,” he writes.
Despite the “bleak outlook and high emotion”, the Prime Minister writes that he came away from the trip “more convinced than ever” of the need to support a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict.
The Hamas attacks of 7 October in which the group kidnapped over 200 people from Israel and killed more than 1000, were possibly motivated by “fear that a new dawn might be breaking in the Middle East, one that would leave old hatreds behind,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that the UK has committed £10 million of extra support for civilians in Gaza as he praised the opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt yesterday to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid as “a testament to the power of diplomacy”, and called for water supplies to Gaza to be restored.
He also confirmed the UK is working with international partners to ensure British nationals trapped in Gaza can leave through the crossing while aid enters, and that the RAF and Royal Navy have been deployed to the region to “monitor any emerging threats”.
