Children of Gaza are running out of time

Every day, from the comfort of our living rooms, we watch news reports of people ravaged by hunger being crushed against barriers of bombed-out aid distribution centres as they desperately seek their first meal in days. And all the while they run the gauntlet for food and assistance under the gun barrels of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City on Saturday, July 26 (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

All told, more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed seeking aid and assistance since May, all at the hands of the IDF. There are always excuses. “Weapons malfunction”, “bad targeting information” but the killing of civilians is so commonplace in Gaza right now it feels calculated and deliberate. It is yet another policy direction from the Netanyahu government that is turning public opinion solidly against the actions of the Israeli state.

The Israeli government has now proposed the construction of a “Humanitarian city” on the ruins of Raffa at the Egyptian border, into which all Palestinians in the strip would be corralled. But Netanyahu’s own predecessor, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, has described this as the construction of a “concentration camp” and tantamount to “ethnic cleansing”. This has to stop.

Liberal Democrats in Britain were among the first to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the suspension of all weapons sales to Israel and for Netanyahu and other figures in the Israeli government and military to face sanctions. The situation has become so dire with widespread famine just days away we are also calling on the RAF to join the Jordanians in flying food and medical aid drops into Gaza as a matter of urgency.

Lib Dems are also clear that, as the cabinet meets to discuss the matter this week, the UK Government should follow the leadership of Emmanuel Macron in France and formally recognise the state of Palestine. A path to peace is possible, but only through a two-state solution. That starts by legitimising the right of both states to exist – that is only possible through nationhood. None of this detracts from the outrage that we felt at the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Nor does it diminish the concern that we still feel for the more than 50 hostages still held by the terrorists in the tunnels of Gaza.

But peace and reconciliation will remain out of reach for as long as Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis alike are led by people who only have their own interests at heart. There will be no end to conflict in that benighted region for as long as the Gaza strip is controlled by a terrorist organisation that seeks the destruction of Israel, and for as long as Israel is controlled by a prime minister who is using the crisis to stave off his own legal jeopardy and electoral defeat. The children of Gaza are running out of time. We can turn away no longer.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and MSP for Edinburgh Western