Foreign Secretary calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

David Lammy is visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to progress diplomatic efforts for long-term peace and security in the region

• Foreign Secretary calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a rapid increase of humanitarian aid into Gaza on first Middle East visit.
• In meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas, David Lammy makes the urgent case for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.
• The Foreign Secretary announces £5.5m to UK-Med to support their ongoing work to provide humanitarian assistance and medical treatment to those in Gaza.

David Lammy visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories yesterday [Sunday, 14 July] on his first trip to the Middle East since becoming Foreign Secretary.   

He focused on the UK’s diplomatic role in helping to bring the conflict in Gaza to an end and making progress towards long-term peace and security in the Middle East.     

He raised the urgent need for a ceasefire agreed by both sides, which includes the release of all hostages and a rapid increase of aid into Gaza.     

The Foreign Secretary also announced that the UK will provide another £5.5m this year to UK-Med to fund their life-saving work in Gaza.

UK-Med is a frontline medical aid charity who send experienced humanitarian medics, including those working in the NHS, to crisis-hit regions to deliver life and limb-saving health care.  

This funding will be used to support the ongoing work of their field hospitals and the emergency department at Nasser Hospital. It will allow medics, including those from the UK, to continue carrying out vital work to treat thousands more patients suffering from acute respiratory illnesses, infections, and explosive fragmentation trauma cases.

Foreign Secretary, David Lammy said: “The death and destruction in Gaza is intolerable. This war must end now, with an immediate ceasefire, complied with by both sides. The fighting has got to stop, the hostages still cruelly detained by Hamas terrorists need to be released immediately and aid must be allowed in to reach the people of Gaza without restrictions.

“I am meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stress the UK’s ambition and commitment to play its full diplomatic role in securing a ceasefire deal and creating the space for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.

“The world needs a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. 

“Central to this is to see an end to expanding illegal Israeli settlements and rising settler violence in the West Bank. Here, in what should be a crucial part of a Palestinian state, alongside Gaza and East Jerusalem, we need to see a reformed and empowered Palestinian Authority.”

In Israel, the Foreign Secretary held high-level talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog to reiterate the need to end the conflict in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.

Mr Lammy met with hostage families with links to the UK whose loved ones have been murdered or taken by Hamas.   

Highlighting more than 680 tonnes of UK aid in the region and waiting to enter Gaza, including medicines, shelters and hygiene kits, the Foreign Secretary pushed the desperate need to rapidly increase aid into Gaza.    

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Foreign Secretary welcomed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to delivering reform and reiterate the UK’s support to PM Mustafa and his government.  

The UK has provided £10 million in aid to support the Palestinian Authority this financial year through the World Bank. The funding will provide vital support for key services, for example through the payment of salaries for 8,200 doctors, nurses and other health workers over two months.   

In meetings with President Abbas and Prime Minister Mustafa, he highlighted his commitment to recognising a Palestinian state as an undeniable right of the Palestinian people, and as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.

He also called out settlements in the West Bank as illegal and harmful to a two-state solution on visit to a Palestinian community.