Exclusive:David Lammy - why I am overturning the suspension on funding to UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency

It is a top priority for me and the new British Government, and I know many people in Yorkshire share my concerns. I sat down with leaders on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian. And I was frank.

Britain wants to see an immediate ceasefire. The fighting has got to stop, now.

All the hostages have got to be released, now. Much, much more aid has got to enter Gaza, now. In short, this horror must end, now.

The impact of this conflict is appalling. On my visit, I met the families of Israeli hostages still held so cruelly by Hamas. But I also met Palestinians displaced in the West Bank and aid workers from Gaza.

Israeli settlement expansion has reached record levels. This is completely unacceptable.

And aid workers’ reports of conditions in Gaza were devastating. Almost 40,000 killed, thousands more injured. Mothers so malnourished they cannot produce milk for their babies.

A surge in disease among children – diarrhoea, respiratory infections, hepatitis. More aid workers killed in Gaza than in every other conflict in the world today combined.

I announced more funding for field hospitals in the strip. Such aid is a moral necessity in the face of such a catastrophe. But it is aid agencies who get support to civilians on the ground.

That’s why we are overturning the suspension on funding to UNRWA. Our new Government will provide £21 million in new funds.

UNRWA is the UN agency dedicated to supporting Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the region. No other agency can deliver aid at the scale needed. It has robustly responded to the appalling allegations that some staff participated in the barbaric 7 October atrocities.

It’s already feeding over half the population of Gaza, and supports more than five and a half million Palestinians in total.

Almost 200 of their staff have died during the conflict. We are committed to supporting their lifesaving work.

Britain’s overarching goal in this crisis is clear: a viable and sovereign Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.

There is no way forward without the hope that both Palestinians and Israelis have a path to security, justice, and opportunity in lands they can call their own.

For 24 years, I have been MP for Tottenham. I have constituents convinced the world does not grasp Israel’s predicament, threatened by those who would see it annihilated.

There is no equivalence between Hamas, a terrorist organisation responsible for barbaric attacks on 7 October, and Israel's democratic government. I utterly condemn the Houthi attack on Tel Aviv overnight.

But I also have constituents convinced the world does not grasp the depth of Palestinian suffering. Civilians in Gaza are trapped in hell on earth, while the Palestinian people have been in purgatory for decades, denied the state that is their inalienable right.

As Foreign Secretary, I understand both these perspectives. I recognise the pain and anguish on all sides. It makes me only more determined to do all I can in government to advance the cause of peace.

David Lammy is the UK’s Foreign Secretary and MP for Tottenham.