British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday said he will hold emergency talks with France and Germany on Gaza, as he condemned the “suffering and starvation” unfolding there as “unspeakable and indefensible.”
Starmer said the situation in the Palestinian enclave has been “grave” for some time but has “reached new depths.” It comes as aid groups warn of starvation in the Gaza Strip and the U.S. said it was cutting short cease-fire talks.
Starmer is also under increasing pressure to fulfil Labour’s promise to recognize Palestine as a state.
“The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” Starmer said. “While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,” he noted.
“I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need, while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace,” he added.
“We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay.”
Starmer said it is “hard to see a hopeful future in such dark times” but called again for all sides to engage “in good faith, and at pace” on a cease-fire and the release of all hostages.
“We strongly support the efforts of the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to secure this,” he said.
Weeks of talks in Qatar to try to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian resistance group Hamas have yielded no major breakthroughs.
Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy for the Middle East, said on Thursday the U.S. was cutting short Gaza cease-fire talks and sending home its negotiating team, claiming that the latest response from Hamas “shows a lack of desire to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.”
The deal under discussion is expected to include a 60-day cease-fire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Aid supplies would be ramped up and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting truce.
Starmer said on Thursday that a cease-fire would provide a pathway to recognizing a Palestinian state, as he faces calls to do so immediately.
“We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“A cease-fire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Later on Thursday, President Emanuel Macron announced France will officially recognize Palestine as a state.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said earlier that the U.K. government was “deeply committed” to recognition but that such a move would need to be “meaningful.”
“Now, at the minute, there is not a Palestinian state there. There is no political agreement between the two principal Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza,” Reynolds told LBC Radio.
He pointed to steps the U.K. has taken to ramp up pressure on Israel, including sanctioning two Israeli cabinet ministers and ending trade talks with Israel.
“And we do want to see Palestine recognized. I want that to be meaningful. I want that to be working with partners, other countries around the world.”
Macron pressed for recognition of Palestinian statehood in a recent address to the U.K.’s parliament, saying it was the “only path to peace.”
Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan has piled pressure on Starmer to “immediately recognize Palestinian statehood” and said the UK “must do far more to pressure the Israeli government to stop this horrific senseless killing.”
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) also called for formal recognition of Palestine “not in a year’s time or two years’ time – but now.”
“Recognition is not a symbolic gesture. It is a necessary and practical step towards a viable two-state solution that delivers equal rights and democracy, this is the only credible path to a just and lasting peace, ending decades of occupation, violence and displacement,” the TUC said.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called for the Royal Air Force to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza.
“Aid delivered by the air is no substitute for the reopening of supply routes by land,” he said.
“But the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe we are now witnessing requires us to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to get aid to Gazans.”
More than 100 organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Save the Children, have put their names to an open letter in which they said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”
It comes as Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell described the situation in Gaza as “a stain on the conscience of the international community.”
He said: “With each passing day in Gaza, the violence, starvation and dehumanization being inflicted on the civilian population by the government of Israel becomes more depraved and unconscionable.”
Israel’s genocidal war has been raging for nearly two years since the October 2023 Hamas incursion caused around 1,200 deaths and took 251 hostages from southern Israel.
Israel has since killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, reduced most of the territory to ruins and forced nearly the entire population to flee their homes multiple times.
Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its war on the enclave.
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