Gaza live: Starmer calls emergency cabinet meeting over Palestine as ‘worst-case famine scenario’ unfolding – UK Times

“In the coming days, thousands of Gaza’s children will either be rescued or allowed to die,” warned David Miliband, the former foreign secretary and now president of the International Rescue Committee.

“That’s the choice before us.”

Under pressure from a worsening hunger crisis, Israel has paused military operations in parts of Gaza for 10 hours daily for the past two days and allowed some international food airdrops.

However, aid agencies say these steps aren’t enough and urge Israel to open all border crossings and alternative routes for their convoys to travel to avoid being looted.

Keir Starmer will go into his emergency cabinet meeting this afternoon under immense political pressure to change government policy and recognise a Palestinian state.

The discussion in the cabinet meeting will be part of a wider plan for peace which the prime minister will lay out to senior ministers.

But, in the end, the question which will be troubling Sir Keir will not be whether he wants to recognise Palestine as a country, but determining when formal recognition will have maximum effect.

This is why today’s cabinet meeting will be about setting a pathway to recognition, rather than doing it immediately.

Since Israel’s offensive led to a security breakdown in Gaza that has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is being hoarded by gangs and merchants and sold at exorbitant prices.

A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour has run as high as $60 in recent days, a kilogram of lentils up to $35.

That is beyond the means of most residents in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine and where people are largely reliant on savings 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.

Bags of flour in markets often bear U.N. logos, while other packaging has markings indicating it came from the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — all originally handed out for free.

It’s impossible to know how much is being diverted, but neither group is able to track who receives its aid.

Following pressure from the international community, Israel has announced brief “humanitarian pauses” between 10am and 8pm each day to allow more aid to be delivered to starving Palestinians, as US president Donald Trump said on Monday: “They have to get food and safety right now.”

In a highly unusual move while Parliament is in recess, Sir Keir Starmer will hold an urgent cabinet meeting on the Middle East this afternoon.

It is designed to set out a plan for “lasting peace” in the region – but all eyes will be on how it paves the way for Labour to recognise a Palestinian state.

The prime minister is due to present his plan, which he discussed with Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday, to ministers.

He is under growing pressure from Labour MPs, and cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner and home secretary Yvette Cooper, to recognise a Palestinian state immediately.

Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza. This marks the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.

The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 2023, attack — amounts to genocide.

But in Israel itself, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government’s strongest critics have largely refrained from making these accusations.

The president, seen as one of Israel’s strongest supporters, signalled the United States would not object to such a move – giving Sir Keir the green light as pressure mounts on him politically to follow Emmanuel Macron, who last week announced France would do so.

In an apparent shift in US backing for Israel, the president also expressed his concern at images and reports of children starving in Gaza, as a ground blockade means only very limited aid is getting through.

And he joined calls for Benjamin Netanyahu to soften his tactics in Gaza, saying the Israeli PM “may have to do it a different way”.

AIPAC appears to have dropped its endorsement of Republican Congressman Randy Fine after he tweeted: “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.”

“(This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.),” Fine added in the July 22 post.

AIPAC had backed Fine in his House race earlier this year, but by Monday evening, his name no longer appeared in the pro-Israel lobby’s list of endorsed candidates, according to The Times of Israel.

Fellow Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “A Jewish US Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is “further than ever before”.

Mr Guterres said actions “that would forever undermine the two-state solution” must stop, and he urged a two-day UN conference to be a “decisive turning point” rather than mere rhetoric.

French and Saudi foreign ministers on Monday opened the conference on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian activist and teacher Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, known for his work on the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair.

The alleged shooter, identified by residents as Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, was arrested, though Israeli police also detained four Palestinians and two tourists, Al Jazeera reported.

Human rights group B’Tselem has accused Israel of genocide, citing a spike in settler attacks carried out with impunity.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023.