{"id":288629,"date":"2025-07-24T19:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288629\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T19:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:02:13","slug":"starmer-to-hold-emergency-talks-on-gaza-with-france-and-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288629\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer to hold emergency talks on Gaza with France and Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prime Minister has said he will hold emergency talks with France and Germany on Gaza, as he condemned the \u201csuffering and starvation\u201d unfolding there as \u201cunspeakable and indefensible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer said the situation has been \u201cgrave\u201d for some time but has \u201creached new depths\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as aid groups warn of starvation in the Gaza Strip and the US said it was cutting short ceasefire talks.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is also under increasing pressure to fulfil Labour\u2019s promise to recognise Palestine as a state.<\/p>\n

\"French<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany\u2019s Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Ben Stansall\/PA)<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said: \u201cThe suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it is \u201chard to see a hopeful future in such dark times\u201d but called again for all sides to engage \u201cin good faith, and at pace\u201d on a ceasefire and the release of all hostages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly support the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to secure this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Weeks of talks in Qatar to try to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have yielded no major breakthroughs.<\/p>\n

Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration\u2019s special envoy, said on Thursday the US was cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and sending home its negotiating team after the latest response from Hamas \u201cshows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

The deal under discussion is expected to include a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.<\/p>\n

Aid supplies would be ramped up and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting truce.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir said on Thursday that a ceasefire would provide a pathway to recognising a Palestinian state, as he faces calls to do so immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

\u201cA ceasefire 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said earlier that the Government was \u201cdeeply committed\u201d to recognition but that such a move would need to be \u201cmeaningful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

Smoke billows from an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday (Ohad Zwigenberg\/AP)<\/p>\n

Mr Reynolds told LBC Radio: \u201cNow, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to steps the UK has taken to ramp up pressure on Israel, including sanctioning two Israeli cabinet ministers and ending trade talks with Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we do want to see Palestine recognised. I want that to be meaningful. I want that to be working with partners, other countries around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron pressed for recognition of Palestinian statehood in a recent address to the UK\u2019s Parliament, saying it was the \u201conly path to peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has piled pressure on Sir Keir to \u201cimmediately recognise Palestinian statehood\u201d and said the UK \u201cmust do far more to pressure the Israeli government to stop this horrific senseless killing\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Trades Union Congress also called for formal recognition of Palestine \u201cnot in a year\u2019s time or two years\u2019 time \u2013 but now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognition 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,\u201d the TUC said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for the Royal Air Force to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cAid delivered by the air is no substitute for the reopening of supply routes by land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 100 organisations, including Doctors Without Borders 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, \u201cwaste away\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, described the situation in Gaza as \u201ca stain on the conscience of the international community\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWith each passing day in Gaza, the violence, starvation and dehumanisation being inflicted on the civilian population by the government of Israel becomes more depraved and unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas-led militants based in Gaza abducted 251 people in the October 7 attack in 2023 that triggered the war and killed about 1,200 people.<\/p>\n

Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Prime Minister has said he will hold emergency talks with France and Germany on Gaza, as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[9739,34,2000,299,2194,107742,1824,107744,837,807,107743,1814,5336,50069,52468],"class_list":{"0":"post-288629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-ceasefire","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-gaza","13":"tag-gaza-ceasefire","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-humanitarian-catastrophe","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-lasting-peace","19":"tag-palestine","20":"tag-palestinian-statehood","21":"tag-sir-keir","22":"tag-the-prime-minister"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114909763646932193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}