Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2025
I thank Bill Kidd for securing this important debate, and I pay genuine tribute to all the members, across the parties, who have spoken so powerfully. Only last week, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said:
“Attacks on civilians in Gaza—including the killing and injury of hungry people seeking food and those delivering aid—are unacceptable.”
A former UK ambassador to Lebanon and senior adviser to two UK Prime Ministers, Tom Fletcher understands intimately the responsibility of the international community towards the world’s most vulnerable citizens.
The Scottish Government condemns in the strongest terms the killings in Gaza of civilians who lost their lives while queuing for food and trying to get aid for their families. Gazans are faced with an impossible choice between risking death by starvation and risking death by gunfire. It is totally unacceptable and it has to stop.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment confirms that the entire population of Gaza faces high levels of acute food insecurity. Half a million people—one in five—face starvation, and children under five are at the highest risk.
The situation is entirely man made and was entirely preventable. Israel’s approach to delivering aid via private contractors has failed tragically. Israel’s plan to entrust the distribution of aid in Gaza to private contractors contravenes humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. The plan risks militarising aid and exacerbating inequalities. It is unconscionable that 2 million people are starving in the Gaza Strip while tonnes of food is being blocked at the border. Israel must now allow humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, to conduct their life-saving work unimpeded and at scale.
The Scottish Government has been consistent and forthright in calling for an immediate and sustained ceasefire. Like any other country, Israel has a right to protect itself and its citizens from terror, and the Scottish Government has repeatedly and unreservedly condemned the brutality of Hamas on 7 October 2023 and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli and other hostages. However, in exercising its right to defend itself, Israel must abide by international humanitarian law. Israel’s military action has gone far beyond any legitimate response.
We have been consistent in calling for unimpeded access to Gaza for humanitarian aid, for Israel to comply with international court rulings and for accountability for those who are responsible for atrocities, wherever they occur. Scottish Government ministers have repeatedly called for an end to licensed arms exports to Israel. We do not believe that there is a case for sending more weapons to Israel. The UN Security Council has called for a ceasefire. Ministers have made it clear that, by continuing to arm Israel, the UK is in danger of being complicit in killing innocent civilians.