Yvette Cooper urged Israel and Hamas to maintain the ceasefire, which is being tested after fresh clashes, with Israeli air strikes reportedly killing more than 100 people in Gaza this week
The world cannot walk away and leave Gaza as a “no-man’s land” hovering between peace and war, the Foreign Secretary has said.
Yvette Cooper urged Israel and Hamas to maintain the ceasefire, which is being tested after fresh clashes, with Israeli air strikes reportedly killing more than 100 people in Gaza this week. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government has accused Hamas of opening fire on its soldiers in Rafah, killing one, and tensions have spiralled over the return of the bodies of dead Israeli hostages.
The Sunday Mirror travelled with Ms Cooper on her first trip to the Middle East as Foreign Secretary, where she stepped up calls on Israel to allow more aid into the war-ravaged Gaza strip.
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She said world leaders must push on urgently with the next phase of the peace plan, brokered earlier this month by Donald Trump, along with countries including Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.
Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, she said: “If we don’t make progress, then Gaza will risk being stuck in a kind of no man’s land between peace and war. Although the fragile ceasefire may hold, we’ve still got so much more progress that needs to be made.
“A lot of that is going to be very difficult, but now is not the time for countries to walk away.”
She called for restrictions to be lifted on aid, including the opening of the border crossings, to allow vital help languishing outside the enclave to be rushed in.
She said: “We’ve had two years of the most horrendous suffering, with tens of thousands of lives being lost, hostages being held, and huge devastation in Gaza. So it’s essential the ceasefire holds and also that the humanitarian aid now needs to get back into Gaza.
“It’s increased but we want it to go much further and we want to see all the crossings opened. We want to see restrictions lifted, because humanitarian aid is essential. It’s the basics, we’re talking about medical care, talking about shelter, talking about food for people who’ve been at risk of famine.”
The UK has pledged £4million to clear landmines from Gaza an estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions are preventing support from reaching desperate people. British organisations have major expertise in this area dating back to the conflict in Northern Ireland and Princess Diana’s campaigning on land mines, Ms Cooper said.
“If you don’t get rid of those munitions, then you can’t get the aid in. Children can’t go into school buildings. You can’t get the nurses and doctors back into hospitals. Families can’t get back into their homes. So the reconstruction work that we badly need in Gaza also depends on being able to keep people safe.”
The Foreign Secretary formally invited the state of Palestine to establish diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in a meeting yesterday(SAT) with her counterpart, Dr Varsen Aghabekian Shahin.
She handed over the letter formally following the UK’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state last month.
But the next phase of the peace process is fraught with difficulties. These include getting Hamas to give up its weapons, establishing a new government and peacekeeping to ensure long-term security for all sides.
She said: “The ceasefire still feels very fragile, but there is so much at stake in terms of people’s lives, people’s safety, security and the safety of children growing up in both Israel and Palestine.
“We need to have the security of knowing that everyone is working to make peace real, to make sure that we can get the disarmament of Hamas, to make sure we can get the new Palestinian committee set up to make sure that we can get the progress being made with humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Gaza.”
The Foreign Secretary said foreign journalists must be allowed into Gaza. And she warned that the scale of the destruction will be difficult for the British public to witness.
She said: “I fear that the devastation is going to be immense. We need journalists to be able to go back into Gaza to be able to see and to be able to show the full pictures, but I think the devastation from all that we know, we’re expecting the scale of devastation to be huge and to be deeply distressing.
“That’s why this is both about how we get in the immediate aid and support, but also how we get in the investment and the support to rebuild and reconstruct Gaza for Palestinians. It has to be a Palestine, led by Palestinians, and they have to have a future for Palestinian children in Gaza.”
Even after peace, Ms Cooper said children caught up in conflict are left to bear the scars and trauma for many years.
She said: “Whether we’re thinking about children in Gaza who suffered from malnutrition, whether we’re thinking about the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped, taken, stolen from their families as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s very often children who are the greatest victims.
“I think this is something that goes to the heart of the values that the UK has always had about protecting and supporting those who are hardest hit by conflict.”