Moves come despite growing international pressure for an immediate ceasefire
MPs and peers sign letter urging UK government to ban arms sales to Israel
Parliamentary pressure is building on the UK government to ban arms sales to Israel, amid signs that Israel intends to ignore the UN security council resolution passed this week calling on all sides to commit to a ceasefire.
A letter signed by more than 130 parliamentarians to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, highlights action taken by other countries, most recently Canada, which last week announced it would halt all arms exports to Israel.
Ministers are already facing calls from the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, to publish the legal advice to ministers on whether there is a serious risk Israel is breaching international humanitarian law, something that would normally trigger a suspension of UK arms sales.
The letter, coordinated by the Labour MP Zarah Sultana, was signed by 107 MPs and 27 peers including the former Labour Middle East minister Peter Hain, the Scottish National party’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, the former shadow minister Jess Phillips, the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Conservative peer Nosheena Mobarik.
You can read more of Patrick Wintour’s piece here:Hamas asks for airdrops to stop after 12 people drown trying to recover aid from sea
Hamas has asked donor countries to stop their airdrops after 12 people drowned trying to recover parachuted food aid from the sea off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, reports AFP.
Hamas and the Swiss-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also said another six people were killed in stampedes trying to get aid.
“People are dying just to get a can of tuna,” Gaza resident Mohamad al-Sabaawi told AFP, holding a can in his hand after a scramble over an aid package.
Hamas has also demanded that Israel allow more aid trucks to enter the territory, which the UN has warned is on the brink of a “manmade famine” after nearly six months of fighting.
The UN children’s fund, Unicef, said vastly more aid must be rushed into Gaza by road rather than by air or sea to avert an “imminent famine”.
Unicef spokesperson James Elder said the necessary help was “a matter of kilometres away” in aid-filled trucks waiting across Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
The US national security council said in a statement it would continue trying to get aid in by road, but also said it would continue airdrops, reports AFP.
AFPTV footage showed crowds rushing towards aid packages on Tuesday being dropped by parachute from planes sent by Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.Intense Israeli bombardment hits southern Gaza
The southern Gaza Strip came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight, despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where famine is looming.
A report by the news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), said that a fireball had lit up the night sky in the southern city of Rafah, the last remaining urban centre in Gaza not to have been attacked by Israeli ground forces. About 1.5 million people are crammed in the area, many having fled south towards the border with Egypt.
According to AFP, the sound of explosions was also heard and smoke was seen rising in Gaza City in the north, where Israeli troops have been attacking the city’s largest hospital for more than a week.
Israeli forces have also surrounded two hospitals in Khan Younis, where the health ministry said 12 people, including some children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for the displaced.
