UK joins call for 'immediate' end to war in Gaza, as IDF launches offensive on Deir al-Balah
The joint statement, released by the Foreign Office, condemns the "horrifying" killing of Palestinians seeking aid, and brands Israeli government's aid strategy in Gaza as "dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity."
It comes as the IDF ordered the evacuation of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, with charities in the city reporting Israeli military vehicles on the ground.
The statement was signed by the Foreign Secretary David Lammy and foreign ministers of other 24 nations including Canada, Australia and France, and the EU Commissioner for Equality.
They condemn the "drip feeding of aid" and the "inhumane" killing of civilians, including children, while searching for water and food.
It continues: "It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.
"The Israeli Government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
"The hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly. We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release. A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.
"We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life-saving work safely and effectively."
Meanwhile, the IDF has ordered Palestinians to evacuate Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and move south towards Al-Mawasi.
Deir al-Balah had previously been considered one of the less hard-hit parts of the territory, and had been a key hub for humanitarian efforts.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), a spokesman for the IDF said the army continued to operate with "great force" and was expanding its operations into "an area it has not operated in before."
A spokesperson for charity Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) has described the situation in Deir al-Balah as "extremely critical."
They added: "Shelling is taking place all around our office, and military vehicles are just 400 metres away from our colleagues and their families, who endured a harrowing night after relocating there.
"Everyone is now evacuating, with most unsure where to go next. One colleague shared that the area is filled with shelling and quadcopter strikes, and there's growing fear about both staying and attempting to leave.'
Smoke was seen rising over the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel widened evacuation orders.
On Sunday, Medical Aid for Palestinians confirmed the IDF's evacuation order area included humanitarian and primary healthcare sites it operated.
It said the forced displacement orders do not allow for the transport medial equipment or supplies.
Steve Cutts, MAP's Interim CEO, said: 'This latest forced displacement order is yet another attack on humanitarian operations and a deliberate attempt to sever the last remaining threads of Gaza's health and aid system.
'MAP now has to suspend critical services we have been providing to the Palestinian population, including a primary health clinic that serves hundreds of civilians every day.
"With Israel's systematic targeting of health and aid workers, no one is safe. Not only are we prevented from carrying out our lifesaving work to support Palestinians, we are also unable to protect our own teams."
As talks for a ceasefire continue, the death toll in Gaza has reached more than 59,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Hamas vows to never lay guns down unless demand is met as thugs share sick clip of hostage ‘forced to dig his own grave'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) HAMAS says it will never lay guns down unless an independent Palestinian state is established and its capital is Jerusalem. It comes as the militant group - declared a terrorist organisation by the UK and the US - released a sick video showing an emaciated Israeli hostage in a tunnel. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Hamas fighters stand in formation ahead of a hostages' release in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip in February Credit: AP 5 The distressing video shows an emaciated Evyatar holding a shovel and saying this is where he thinks he'll be buried 5 Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen amid a hunger crisis in Gaza on Saturday Credit: Shutterstock Editorial The militant group said it was giving a statement "in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm". It said: "We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues. "This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights - first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital." Hamas also released a video showing an Israeli man - Evyatar David - being held hostage in what looks like a tunnel. Evyatar, 24, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7. The distressing video shows him telling the camera that he is digging his own grave. His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video. It comes as at least 51 people - including 27 aid workers - have been killed so far on Saturday in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the devastating war on Gaza amid a deepening hunger crisis - coupled with Israel's cruel blockage of aid delivery. Last week, indirect talks between Hamas and Israel ended in deadlock, stalling efforts to secure a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and a deal for the release of hostages. Starmer vows UK will recognise Palestine in weeks unless Israel ends crisis – but critics blast 'reward' for Hamas Hamas has dominated Gaza since 2007, but has been militarily weakened by Israel in the war. Israel considers the disarmament of Hamas a key condition for a deal to end the war. But Hamas has repeatedly said it will not lay down its guns. Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a future independent Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel. For this reason, Netanyahu added, Israel must have security control over Palestinian territories. He also criticised the UK and Canada, among other countries, for their plans to recognise a Palestinian state. The war began when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza. 5 A Hamas fighter next to displaced Palestinians in January Credit: AP 5 A plane drops humanitarian aid in Gaza on Saturday Credit: Getty More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
David Lammy and JD Vance bonded over ‘dysfunctional' childhoods – and a Diet Coke
David Lammy has spoken of his friendship with the US vice-president, JD Vance, as the pair can relate over their 'dysfunctional' working-class childhoods. In a series of interviews with the Guardian, conducted over several weeks, the foreign secretary opened up about a 'wonderful hour and a half' spent with Vance over drinks at the US embassy in Italy in May alongside the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner. Lammy said he had been to mass at Vance's home and counted him as a 'friend', saying the vice-president 'relates' to him over their shared background. 'I remember being at the inauguration of the new pope in Rome with Angela Rayner and JD Vance,' he said: 'I don't think JD and Angela will mind me saying that they were having a couple of drinks … I really wanted a glass [of rosé] but instead I had a Diet Coke.' The foreign secretary said they were all 'not just working-class politicians, but people with dysfunctional childhoods'. 'I had this great sense that JD completely relates to me and he completely relates to Angela. So it was a wonderful hour and a half,' he said. In his interview, Lammy spoke of feeling guilty over the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's, highly awkward first meeting with Donald Trump and Vance in the Oval Office, where the men berated him over the war. 'If I'm being honest, I felt, arrghhh!' Lammy said. 'Why hadn't I done more to support our Ukrainian colleagues in preparation for their meeting?… I was being a bit hard on myself. But I still felt guilty.' The foreign secretary also touched on his discomfort over Keir Starmer's 'island of strangers' speech about immigration, which drew criticism that the prime minister was echoing the rightwing politician Enoch Powell. 'I think the use of language was poor,' he says. 'Poor choice. And if someone had shown me the speech, I would've said, 'Take that out'.' On the subject of Gaza, Lammy spoke of his 'days of deep frustration, deep sadness' over the war with Israel. He said things were 'desperate for people on the ground, desperate for the hostages in Gaza', that the world was 'desperate for a ceasefire, for the suffering to come to an end'. He also said he '100 per cent' wanted to go to Gaza 'as soon as I can get in'. Speaking before the government decided to move on to a path to recognise Palestine as an independent state, the foreign secretary described it as a 'card you can only play once'. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion In the interview, the Lammy looked back over his career and his difficult childhood, including the effect of his father – an alcoholic who was violent towards his mother, and who left for the US. 'My father didn't come back. Psychologically that is devastating. There must have been a bit of me that blamed myself. I question whether he did, in fact, love me.' His father later died of throat cancer without his son seeing him again. Lammy said he could not emotionally handle the idea of it at the time, but added: 'I'm quite a forgiving person, my nature is wanting to build bridges, to reach out. It's why I think I'm not bad at this role.' He described his sense of purpose as foreign secretary, saying: 'This is the first time in my life where I do not have impostor syndrome. I genuinely have a sense of being in the right place at the right time for this job.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges
Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor. Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024. Also unresolved is an inquiry into the killing of 31 Palestinians going to pick up food at a distribution point in Rafah on 1 June. They were killed after Israeli forces opened fire, witnesses said. Shortly after, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the reports were 'false' but the IDF told the Guardian that the incident was 'still under review'. Iain Overton and Lucas Tsantzouris, the team at AOAV, said the statistics suggested Israel was seeking to create a 'pattern of impunity' by failing to conclude or find no fault in the vast majority of cases involving 'the most severe or public accusations of wrongdoing by their forces'. The IDF said it 'conducts examination and investigation processes regarding exceptional incidents that occurred during operational activity, in which there is a suspicion of a violation of the law' in accordance with its obligations under Israeli and international law. It operates internal systems to conduct examinations and allegations of war crimes, including criminal investigations by the military advocate general's police department and fact-finding assessments (FFA) by a separate team in the general staff. The relatively short passage of time, in investigatory and legal terms, means other unresolved cases may also result in prosecutions, though the two researchers said IDF inquiries had become 'more opaque and slow-moving' as the number of civilian casualties in Gaza has mounted. AOAV said it had found reports of 52 cases in English-language media where the Israeli military said it had conducted or would conduct an investigation after allegations of civilian harm or wrongdoing by its forces in Gaza or the West Bank between October 2023 and the end of June 2025. They involve the deaths of 1,303 Palestinians and the wounding of 1,880. One case resulted in a prison sentence for an Israeli soldier. An IDF reservist received a seven-month jail term in February after he was convicted by a military court of the aggravated abuse of Palestinian security detainees. He had repeatedly attacked bound and blindfolded prisoners with his fists, a baton and his assault rifle at the Sde Teiman detention centre. Five other cases ended with violations found. In one, an IDF colonel and a major were sacked in April 2024 and three other commanders reprimanded a few days after seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an airstrike. The IDF said it was a 'grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification', though the charity said the rapid investigation lacked credibility. The remaining 46 cases, representing 88% of the total, seven were closed without any finding of fault, AOAV said. A further 39 remain under review or with no outcome reported, including four deadly incidents over the course of last month when Palestinians were killed near or at various food distribution points on the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF: 'Any report … complaint or allegation that suggests misconduct by IDF forces undergoes an initial examination process, irrespective of its source.' In some instances the evidence is such that a criminal investigation by military police is ordered, while in others an initial investigation takes place. These are referred to the IDF general staff's FFA mechanism to determine 'whether there is a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct'. Critics of the system, such as the Yesh Din human rights group, say FFA investigations can take years and have led to one known prosecution after 664 inquiries relating to previous IDF military operations in Gaza, in 2014, 2018-19 and 2021. In August 2024, the IDF said the FFA had collected information on 'hundreds of incidents' relating to the war in Gaza alone, while the military advocate general's office had launched 74 criminal investigations. Of these, 52 related to the deaths and mistreatment of detainees and 13 to the stealing of enemy ammunition, while a minority related to allegations of war crimes in combat situations. Three related to the 'destruction of civilian property without military necessity' and six concerning 'alleged illegal use of force'. The IDF statistics differ from the investigations tracked by AOAV because the research group used a different methodology. AOAV reviewed episodes where there were reports of an investigation being or having been conducted and also took in incidents on the West Bank as well as Gaza. The IDF said that 'dozens of military police investigations have been opened' and that 'most of these investigations are still ongoing'. The FFA mechanism, meanwhile, had 'completed its review in dozens of cases' and these had transferred to the military advocate general for possible criminal investigation.
