UK's Labour Lammy calls killings in Gaza 'intolerable'
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David Lammy, the shadow Foreign Secretary, condemns Israeli authorities for "turning a blind eye" to settlers' violence in the West Bank.
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Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza on December 8, 2023. (AP)
The Labour Party has issued its harshest condemnation of "Israel's" attacks on Palestinians, calling the death and destruction in Gaza over the last two months "intolerable" and blasting Israeli cabinet ministers for their "totally unacceptable" support for illegal settlements in the West Bank.
David Lammy, the shadow Foreign Secretary, condemned Israeli authorities for "turning a blind eye" to settlers' violence in the West Bank, which has "forcibly displaced" more than 1,000 Palestinians since October 7.
He criticized far-right ministers for pouring huge sums into the budget for settlements, which jeopardizes any hope of a political solution, while “defunding the Palestinian Authority and promoting dangerous and extreme rhetoric about Palestinians."
In a letter in The Observer, Lammy demanded that the UK government of Rishi Sunak impose travel bans on Israelis involved in settlement violence.
“The people of Gaza, like the people of the West Bank, must know that a Labour government, with the international community, will not tolerate their expulsion,” he wrote.
He also emphasized that "Israel" needs to "clearly affirm" the right of return for Palestinians who have been displaced since October 7.
"This must be at the core of our efforts," he said.
Lammy wrote of visiting a Bedouin community in the West Bank, who had been forced out of their village Wadi as-Seeq by “an armed group of illegal settlers."
Lammy's comments come as the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza nears 18,000 and the humanitarian crisis deepens.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme, called any meaningful operation in Gaza "impossible".
“Nothing quite prepared me for the fear, the chaos, and the despair we encountered. Confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves.”
According to a study published in Haaretz, "Israel's" aggression on Gaza is the most arbitrary in terms of civilian deaths compared to previous years.
In its latest report, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the death toll from the war has surpassed 17,700 Palestinian martyrs, and more than 56,000 citizens were injured with various injuries.
According to the Haaretz investigation, the ratio of civilian deaths in previous Israeli bombings of Gaza from 2012 to 2022 was 40%.
In comparison, in the current bombardment which began on October 7, civilian deaths rose to 61% in what Haaretz described as “unprecedented killing”. The ratio is significantly higher than the civilian toll in all the wars around the world during the 20th century, in which civilians accounted for about half the dead.
The report backs up earlier investigations by other Israeli news outlets, +972 Magazine and Local Call, which concluded that "Israel" was intentionally targeting residential buildings in the hope that Gazans would turn on Palestinian Resistance factions.
US urges restrain but vetoes ceasefire
On Friday, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby dared to claim that the US is doing more than "any other nation" to aid civilians in Gaza, adding that they have pressured "Israel" to be "cautious" in how it bombs Gaza.
When questioned about "Israel's" ground invasion impact on Gazans, Kirby responded to reporters that the US is doing its utmost to prevent civilian deaths and help those who need it.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently stated publicly that the US would support the bombing of south Gaza only if "Israel" actively tried to limit the death of civilians and avoided the displacement of the people in Gaza.
However, the US is neither imposing a deadline on "Israel" regarding its war on Gaza nor "pulling the brakes" on the invasion but is only suggesting that time is running out, a senior Israeli security official said, according to Axios.
This comes after the White House reiterated its full support for the Israeli occupation entity's war on the Strip amid increasing international and domestic pressure on the administration of US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire and an end to the inhumane aggression on Gaza.
Just yesterday, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, "diplomatically" shielding its ally.
Human Rights Watch recently warned that the US is risking "complicity in war crimes" by its continued military support to "Israel."
Amnesty International USA senior director Paul O'Brien stated, "With this veto, the US government is shamefully turning its back on immense civilian suffering, a staggering death toll, and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza."
An internal government list provided to the Wall Street Journal by Biden administration officials shows that the US has already transferred 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells to "Israel", including 5,000 MK82 unguided bombs, 5,400 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, around 1,000 GBU-39 small diameter bombs, as well as approximately 3,000 laser-guided JDAM missiles.
