Meeting of the Parliament 03 September 2025
On Saturday morning, I attended a Gaza protest in Haddington, in my constituency, where around 200 people were present. Last night, I was at another event in North Berwick, which was attended by around 75 people. People from all backgrounds were present at both events. They were angry, distraught and frustrated at the on-going genocide in Gaza. Let us call it what it is: state-sponsored genocide.
An estimated 60,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Government’s actions. That figure rises every day.
I condemn the actions of Hamas on 7 October 2023. We all do.
Israel is using famine as a weapon in this war. The facts of the famine in Gaza are simple. Palestinians cannot leave, war has ended farming and Israel has banned fishing, so practically every calorie that the population eats must be brought in from outside.
Israel knows how much food is needed—it has been calibrating hunger in Gaza for decades. The co-ordinator of Government activities in the territories—COGAT—is the Israeli agency that still controls aid shipments to Gaza, and it calculated that Palestinians needed, on average, a minimum of 2,279 calories per person per day, which could be provided through 1.836kg of food. Today, humanitarian organisations are asking for an even smaller minimum ration from 62,000 metric tonnes of dry and canned food to meet basic needs for 2.1 million people each month, which represents around 1kg of food per person per day.
Gaza slid into famine this summer. Israeli officials have vigorously denied the existence of mass starvation and claimed without evidence that food is being stolen or hoarded. They have blamed hunger on UN distribution failures and shared pictures of aid pallets awaiting collection inside the border.
Data that Israel’s Government has compiled and published makes clear that it has been starving Gaza. Between March and June, Israel allowed just 56,000 tonnes of food to enter Gaza. COGAT’s records show that less than a quarter of Gaza’s minimum needs for that period were being provided.
UN-backed food security experts recently said that
“the worst-case scenario of famine”
is now unfolding in Gaza and that food deliveries are
“at a scale far below what is needed”
amid
“drastic restrictions on the entry of supplies”.
In response, Netanyahu has promised only “minimal” extra aid. The number of food trucks entering the territory has risen, but it is still well below the minimum that is needed to feed Palestinians there, much less reverse a famine.
Gaza’s ministry of health says that more than 17,000 of the 60,000 Palestinians killed are children. Israel says that it seeks to minimise harm to civilians. The children of Gaza have the same rights as children anywhere—rights to water, to food, to shelter, to education, to play, to hope, to joy and, most important, to life.
We have seen the bombing of hospitals described as a mistake. We have seen the killing of journalists, which, again, has been described as a mistake. Since October 2023, many hospitals and healthcare facilities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes and military operations.
According to a May 2025 report from the?World Health Organization, 94 per cent of Gaza’s 36 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed.?Attacking hospitals, medical staff and the sick is considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva conventions, which Israel has signed. Attacks on hospitals in Gaza have drawn condemnation from the UN, the WHO and other international bodies.
This is state-sponsored genocide. I welcome the commitment to recognising Palestine. The Scottish Government also needs to?support a total boycott of Israeli goods and to support sanctions on the state of Israel and a complete ban on arms sales to Israel. The genocide needs to stop.
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