Far too many Palestinian civilians and children have  been killed over the past month.

We need a full and immediate humanitarian pause in fighting across all of Gaza too alleviate the suffering of Palestinians and for Hamas terrorists to release the hostages.

It must start now.

Short pauses are a first step, but on their own won’t make the impact needed to relieve this humanitarian crisis. The damage to water pipelines and other infrastructure to hospitals need to be rebuilt, and that requires a longer pause. The aid getting into Gaza is still completely insufficient. It is unacceptable that Israel still has not lifted the siege conditions.

We need a full and immediate humanitarian pause in the fighting across the whole of Gaza to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians and Hamas terrorists to release the hostages. The full pause must start now to get sufficient food, water, electricity, medicine, and fuel into Gaza and address the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.

Far too many Palestinian civilians and children have been killed and there has been far too much civilian suffering over the past month. Hamas must release the hostages and stop using civilians as human shields and Israel must take urgent , concrete steps to protect civilians.

All parties must uphold international law. Allegations of breaches of International Humanitarian Law should always be treated with the utmost seriousness. Assessing specific allegations is the proper task of lawyers and competent international courts. Labour supports the independence of the International Criminal Court and recognises its jurisdiction to address the conduct of all parties in Gaza.