Worldwide consensus building on end to Gaza war - Cooper

The international community is on the brink of securing a peace deal for Gaza that could finally bring an end to two years of conflict and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed thousands of lives, Yvette Cooper has suggested.

- Pippa Crerar

The new foreign secretary, who has just returned from a UN summit, said they had “reached a moment where the world wants to end this war” after the US president, Donald Trump, indicated a peace deal was within reach.

In an interview with the Guardian before the start of the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Cooper urged the Israeli government to “urgently change course” from its renewed military offensive on Gaza. Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, said at the UN that his country “must finish the job”.

However, Cooper declined to conclude that Israel was committing genocide in the territory, despite pressure to do so from inside her party, repeating the government’s position that it was down to a legal process.

She admitted “words seem hollow” in response to the catastrophic situation on the ground and said the priority must be trying to use new momentum behind a peace deal to end the “screams and pain” of Palestinian children.

Cooper, believed to be one of the cabinet ministers who privately pushed Keir Starmer to recognise a Palestinian state, said that while she understood the horror many felt about the humanitarian situation it was her job to focus on ending the war.