I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this important and timely debate. He is right to refer to the Israeli airstrikes that killed over 400 people last night, shattering the fragile ceasefire and violating international law.

He will also know that this has happened against the backdrop of the last two weeks, when we have seen a siege and blockade of Gaza, denying the people there food, water and electricity, which is collective punishment and in itself a war crime under international law.

Does he agree that the silence of the international community is unacceptable? It is not a choice to act. The international community, including the UK, has obligations under international law and the UK Government must meet those obligations by imposing immediate sanctions on Israel.

Does the hon.

Gentleman not accept that the Government have introduced arms export licence suspensions, which target any weapons that might be of British origin that would be used in Gaza, but are attempting to balance that with the needs of the IDF to defend itself against acts of aggression—for instance, the Iranian missile attacks in other theatres in which the IDF is operating?

I thank the hon. Member for securing such an important debate. It was horrifying and heart-wrenching to wake up this morning to see more than 400 innocent Palestinians being killed, including children, bringing the death toll to over 48,000.

Does he agree that Israel is not using weapons to defend itself, but rather using them against innocent Palestinians? It is time the Government took action to stop selling arms so that international law is not broken any further.

In addition to the 400 the hon. Member mentions, we have seen close to 50,000 Palestinians killed, the majority of whom have been women and children.

In addition to the manufacture and supply of F-35 parts, it appears that RAF Marham in Norfolk has been used at least seven times to send spare parts directly to Israel.

Since declaring a so-called suspension of arms exports, the UK has issued 34 new licences, including those for essential aircraft components.

I ask the Minister directly: which licences were suspended in September 2024, which licences remain suspended, and why have the Government refused to publish details of arms exports between July and September 2024?

Our military co-operation extends beyond arms sales; it is operational, especially when it comes to using our airbase in Akrotiri, Cyprus. In one year alone, from December 2023 to November 2024, the UK conducted 645 surveillance and recon missions, which amounts to almost two flights a day.

Interestingly, during the same period, the US moved heavy transport aircraft carrying military equipment to Akrotiri, and the RAF subsequently conducted daily cargo flights from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv.

We have been told that those flights were for surveillance and hostage rescue, but if that is the case, we must ask why we used RAF Atlas C1 aircraft, which are large enough to transport military vehicles and helicopters.

Does the hon.

Member not accept that in the unlikely event that RAF transport aircraft had been carrying something as large as a helicopter or a military vehicle from Cyprus to Israel—it is the first time I have heard that allegation—we might have seen evidence of such helicopters or military vehicles of British provenance?

The Israel Defence Forces have no need of such equipment. They have far more equipment than the British armed forces do.

That is the question that I wish to be answered. Were we involved, directly or indirectly, in the Israeli operation in Nuseirat in June 2024, when 276 Palestinians were killed at the rescue of four Israeli hostages? Critically, has our intelligence been used to conduct air strikes?

If so, under article 25 of the Rome statute, is the UK now legally complicit in war crimes?

Does my hon. Friend agree that allying with Israel while it carries out a genocide will bring about the end of the international world order as we know it?

I completely concur with the hon. Member’s timely intervention. The Government claim that they provide intelligence only when they are satisfied that it will be used in compliance with international law, but what independent due diligence has been conducted to verify that?

If hundreds of UK flights have taken place over Gaza, what have we witnessed? What crimes, if any, have we seen?

In the light of what happened this morning, why has the RAF continued to deploy Shadow R1 surveillance flights towards Gaza, when a stipulation of the ceasefire explicitly forbids surveillance operations? Is that not a violation of the spirit of the ceasefire agreement?

Can the Minister confirm that the Israeli armed forces will not use surveillance supplied by the RAF flights during a hostage exchange in future attacks on Gaza?

The war has taken the lives of an unprecedented number of aid workers, including three British nationals who were killed while working with the World Central Kitchen humanitarian convoy.

Their families have repeatedly requested video footage from our own Shadow R1 surveillance aircraft, which was operating above Gaza at the time. The Government have refused to release it.

Similarly, on 27 May, when at least 45 Palestinians were killed in Rafah, another UK surveillance aircraft was in operation. Again, the footage has not been released. Why? What is being hidden, if anything? If we are confident in our innocence, why the secrecy?

Finally, there is now mounting suspicion and evidence that UK facilities in Gibraltar are being used for the facilitation of armed shipments, harbour services, and jet fuel supplies for vessels transporting weapons from the US to Israel.

Can the Minister please clarify the usage of Gibraltar in the war effort? We must confront the bigger picture. The UK helped to build the modern international legal order, but we risk dismantling it today.

International law is not a game of pick and mix, where we enforce it in one case —namely African despots—and ignore it in another. By allowing Israeli exceptionalism, we threaten to undermine the very concept of international law itself.

I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate, and I ask them to keep to an informal limit of about three and a half minutes, please.

Does my hon. Friend accept that it is more likely that F-35s were in use to shoot down Iranian drones, cruise missiles and other projectiles that were fired at Israel?

Israel needs to use that platform to defend itself, given that it has faced two of the largest barrages of weapons fired at civilian targets since world war two.

It is both an honour and a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) for securing this debate. From the outset, let me be absolutely clear about what is happening. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been slaughtered in Gaza.

Women and children account for the vast majority of the dead. Entire families have been wiped from existence. What is left for those who survive? Starvation and disease, with homes and hospitals turned to rubble and dust. They now also face renewed airstrikes.

Just last night, more than 400 Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombings. That is not defence; it is the annihilation and the attempted eradication of a people.

We, the United Kingdom, have obligations under the genocide convention, international law and the most basic principles of being human. We say we are committed to upholding international law, but what does our country actually do?

The Government have approved more arms export licenses to Israel than they have suspended, they continue to use RAF Akrotiri to assist the transfer of US military cargo to Israel and carry out surveillance flights over Gaza gathering intelligence that could aid in the targeting of Palestinian civilians.

When the International Court of Justice ruled that genocide is “plausible”, the Government should have cut all military ties with Israel. Instead, it has chosen to continue arming and enabling a regime that conducts annexation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Prior to last night’s devastating attack, Israel routinely broke the ceasefire agreement declared on 19 January, blocking aid and cutting off electricity and water supplies. Does my hon.

Friend agree that these acts of genocide need to be recognised as such by the international courts and the UK Government?

I am in complete agreement; it is undeniable that these are war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide. Every weapon part that the UK supplies and every piece of intelligence that we share makes us complicit.

We must immediately suspend all arms sales, cease all military co-operation and impose economic and diplomatic sanctions. Anything less is just another stain on our history and an unforgivable betrayal of the Palestinian people to whom, let us be completely honest, we already owe a historical debt.

I co-signed a letter to The Guardian newspaper from the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn). It called for an independent public inquiry into the UK’s role on what has happened and continues to happen in Gaza.

Many people are of the opinion that the Government have taken decisions that breach international law. These opinions will not be changed unless there is transparency and accountability.

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) for securing the debate, as well as the authoritative way in which he introduced it. Last night, 400 more people died in Gaza as a result of direct bombardment in breach of the ceasefire.

At the same time, Israel is denying access to food, water and supply of electricity to the people of Gaza, who are now going through the most ghastly time ever, on top of all the horrors they have been through over more than a year.

So many people—69,000—are now known to be dead there, and more bodies are found every day that rubble is cleared away. Those who survive will forever live with survivor’s guilt for the fact that they survived while all their friends and family died around them.

This is devastation beyond belief on live television all around the world. We watch people being starved to death in front of our very eyes, while there is food aplenty just a few kilometres away, deliberately denied to them by a decision of Israel. That is a war crime.

We have to be quite clear about that. In a statement in the Chamber yesterday, in response to the G7 summit that the Foreign Secretary had attended, I asked a specific question about international law and the war crimes that I believe Israel has committed.

He, it seemed to me, conceded that Israel was in breach of international law. That is quite significant. Presumably, there are many Foreign Office briefings going around saying that Israel is in breach of those laws.

That leads to the second question: if we, as a country, knowingly accept that Israel is in breach of international law and continue to provide it with the weapons with which people can be killed in Gaza then we ourselves, as a country, also become complicit in breaches of international law.

Those laws are there for a purpose, to try to prevent genocide and the crimes against humanity that are happening before our very eyes.

The right hon. Member makes a powerful case.

Does he agree that the international dimensions of the situation are so clear, with the ICJ investigating genocide and the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes, even though it continues to be attacked for that, that there is no room for any nation to deny this serious international situation?

Secondly, would he agree that silence, frankly, goes with hypocrisy and double standards?

Order. We are very short of time, so I ask Members to refrain from interventions, in order to get through every speaker.

Order. Sorry—time’s up. I call Jim Shannon.

I call Luke Akehurst—please keep it brief, as you have had several interventions.

rose—

I am afraid we are out of time for Back Benchers now, but perhaps Brendan O’Hara would like to intervene on the Minister. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

Yesterday, the Foreign Secretary admitted that Israel is breaking international law.

Does the Minister therefore acknowledge that its actions and our Government’s refusal to act against them, including by banning all sales of weapons, will be watched carefully by rogue states such as Russia and will be used as a template for the actions that are or are not allowed on the international stage?

Our position remains that Israel’s actions in Gaza are at clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law, and we will continue to raise our concerns with Israel. The hon. Member for Leicester South raised the issue of arms exports.

In recent years, UK arms exports have accounted for less than 1% of total defence exports to Israel. As hon. Members are aware, when my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary took office in July 2024, he ordered a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.

On 2 September, he concluded there was a clear risk that UK exports to Israel for use in military operations in Gaza could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations, at which point my right hon.

Friend the Business and Trade Secretary took the decision to suspend relevant export licences to Israel.

Will the Minister give way?

I will make progress because I have only a few moments left. As hon. Members are aware, the suspension of export licences does not include exports of components for the global F-35 programme.

As previously set out to Parliament, it was necessary to exclude exports for the F-35 programme from the scope of the suspension because of the programme’s broader strategic role in NATO and its wider implications for international peace and security.

Although the UK Government’s support for Israel remains steadfast in the face of aggression and terrorism, it is clear that we must have a robust export licensing regime. We keep all licences under close and continual review. Hon. Members have mentioned the overseas territories.

For operational security reasons, and as a matter of long-standing policy, the MOD does not confirm, deny or comment on any foreign national military aircraft movement or operation within UK airspace or on UK overseas bases. The events overnight were a major setback.

Like all Members who spoke today, we want to see the fighting stop. The ceasefire must be re-established, there must be a return to dialogue, the remaining hostages must be released and a surge of aid must be delivered to the people of Gaza.

Although the challenge is much greater today than it was yesterday, we will continue to work alongside our allies and partners towards those goals and a two-state solution that delivers security for Israelis, dignity for Palestinians and a lasting peace in the region.

I would be happy to have a further conversation with the hon. Member for Leicester South after this debate about the points I did not get to because of the shortness of time.

I thank all hon. Members for their sincere contributions. We all want the hostages to be released, but as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, “The Israeli government has chosen to abandon the hostages.

” I say to the shadow Minister that I agree with the defence industry that we must have a robust arms industry, but I pray that our children’s lives are never at the behest of a nation’s economic profit. History will judge us not by our words but by our actions.

Let me be completely clear: this debate is not an attack on our Government, nor is it about politics. It is simply about truth. Only truth can serve justice, and only with justice can we bring about peace. I urge hon. Members to reflect not on their political loyalties but on their moral duty.

When history looks back at this moment, we must be able to say with absolute certainty that we stood on the right side. That is the least we owe to Shaban, Hind and all the dead children of the conflict. Question put and agreed to.

Resolved, That this House has considered the matter of military collaboration with Israel.