UK’s Lammy: Israeli aid system in Gaza a ‘grotesque spectacle’

Speaking to Parliament, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says the “new Israeli aid system is inhumane, it’s dangerous, and it deprives Gazans of human dignity.”

“It’s a grotesque spectacle, wreaking a terrible human cost,” he says, referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, the aid group backed by the Trump administration and Israel.

Israel has criticized the UN’s aid mechanisms as vulnerable to exploitation by Hamas, saying the terror group seizes aid and uses it to sustain itself and consolidate its control over parts of the Strip. The GHF said today that it has repeatedly offered to work together with the UN, but the UN has refused, saying that to do so would violate humanitarian principles.

Lammy boasts that the current government has sanctioned violent settlers and Israeli ministers, suspended trade negotiations with Israel, and signed an major agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

The Foreign Secretary’s address comes after he spoke by phone with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who says he told Lammy that “Hamas is solely responsible for the suffering of the population and the continuation of the war.”

In his Westminster speech, Lammy details attacks by Israeli forces that have killed Gazan civilians seeking aid, and adds that “Hamas is contributing to the chaos and taking advantage of it.”

“The Israeli government must answer: What possible military justification can there be for strikes that have killed desperate, starving children?” Lammy continues. “What immediate actions are they taking to stop this litany of horrors? What will they do to hold those responsible to account?”

“I firmly believe the Israeli government’s actions are doing untold damage to Israel’s standing in the world and undermining Israel’s long-term security,” says Lammy, arguing that Netanyahu should listen to “82 percent” of the Israeli public that wants a ceasefire.

“This offensive puts them in grave danger,” he says. “But still Netanyahu persists.”

He calls the Defense Minister Israel Katz’s plan to move Gaza’s civilians to Rafah “a cruel vision which must never come to pass.”

“The war in Gaza must end now,” says the top British diplomat. “There is no military solution. Negotiations will secure the hostages. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. Hamas and Israel must both commit to a ceasefire now.”

“And the next ceasefire must be the last ceasefire.”

Hamas, he says, can have “no role in the governance of Gaza nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”

Lammy also blasts the Netanyahu government’s “extremist ideology which wants to suffocate the two-state solution.” He rails against “shocking levels of settler violence, even settler terrorism.”

He says Israel should support the Palestinian Authority, and notes that London is joining Egypt to lead the humanitarian and reconstruction track at the upcoming Two-State Solution Conference at the UN later this month.

On Syria, Lammy says “the violence in Sweida must be investigated and those responsible held accountable.”

A stable Syria, he says, “matters to the UK’s national interest, for terrorism, for irregular migration, for regional stability.”

Sa’ar says he told Lammy that “the international community must take a firm stance against the pattern of massacring Syria’s minorities.”