A Catholic charity has welcomed the Prime Minister's decision to recognise a Palestinian state in September - if Israel doesn't declare a ceasefire.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing some criticism over his statement, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing him of rewarding Hamas. Other critics claim he's dangling statehood as a “bargaining chip”.
But Janet Symes, head of Middle East for the Catholic overseas aid agency CAFOD told Premier Christian News that while the organisation isn’t political, the Prime Minister’s intervention is vital.
“It's an important statement, but the key thing behind it is that we are beyond the point of needing statements,” she said. “We need concrete action. I think it is absolutely correct that Palestinians have the right to self-determination, and that has been denied far too long. But we require a clear plan and real action...
“We need to be tackling the immediate issues on the ground at the same time, and that process of creating the opportunity and delivering on sovereignty needs to have a clear plan that has full international backing behind it.”
CAFOD, along with more than 100 humanitarian aid organisations, signed an open letter last week warning of starvation in Gaza.
Symes said: “There has to be a ceasefire. There has to be the space to be able to start real negotiations towards that. And we also have to be in a position where we are tackling the situation of famine. It is intolerable that there is an entirely preventable famine about to unfold in front of us, and that demands immediate action. We can't wait.”
Eighty per cent of Gaza is now under an evacuation order, meaning the majority of the population are living in cramped areas which are unsafe.
Symes said: “Over 1000 Gazans have been killed trying to access aid since this new mechanism was set up by Israel, which is just not functioning effectively.
“There are trucks waiting to deliver aid. Yesterday, we had reports from the UN that 115 trucks got in, which is more than recently, but the estimate is that we need at least 500 or 600 per day over a sustained period to start just getting the basic supplies of food and medicines in, let alone the things that people really need for daily life and basic rations.”