Gaza suffering ‘unspeakable and indefensible’, says PM

Keir Starmer set to hold emergency call with European allies

- BEL TREW, ALEX CROFT & DAVID MADDOX

Palestinians are beginning to resemble “walking corpses”, a United Nations official said yesterday as Sir Keir Starmer called the starvation unfolding in Gaza “unspeakable and indefensible”.

Humanitarian workers in the territory are seeing children who are “emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying” without urgent treatment, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency.

The prime minister is due to hold an emergency call with France and Germany today to push for aid - and a ceasefire. “We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said. “The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.”

The number of people starving in Gaza is reported to have increased dramatically in recent days; most of the 113 hunger-related deaths recorded there so far have occurred in recent weeks, and 82 of those who have died were children, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on the amount of food and aid allowed to enter the territory, limiting aid to a handful of trucks each day following an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials say the aid delivered into the strip is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed.

“We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay,” Sir Keir said.