Gaza: SNP calls on Sunak and Starmer to back immediate ceasefire

By Email: Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Sunday 11 February 2024

Dear Prime Minister, Sir Keir,

I write regarding the publicly stated intention of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a major military assault in the Rafah region of the Gaza strip. It is important to be crystal clear as to what this intended action will actually mean - it will amount to waging a war in the largest refugee camp in the world.

There are an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah. Many of them were either driven there by constant bombing - or instructed to evacuate there - when the bombardment of Gaza began. The UN estimates that 90% of the population in Gaza now faces acute food insecurity, with the risk of famine now a very real possibility for the entire population.

These 1.5 million refugees are now being ordered to evacuate their own homeland by the Israeli army, and they have nowhere else to go. Ten of thousands of innocent civilians - men, women and thousands of children - have already been killed in Gaza. I fear those numbers of civilian dead rise rapidly if the attack on Rafah goes ahead.

For all of reasons stated above, for reasons rooted in international law, and most of all for reasons of basic humanity, the military assault on Rafah cannot be allowed to happen. It must be stopped.

Whatever our differences on this issue in the past number of months, whatever the rationale for the UK government and the Labour Party in opposing an immediate ceasefire until this point, surely now is the time to say enough is enough. Only pressing for an immediate ceasefire has any hope of stopping an even more horrific humanitarian disaster unfolding before the watching world.

In changing course now, and joining us in pressing for an immediate ceasefire, I also hope it will act as an important catalyst for the entire international community to come together and finally put a stop to the conflict in Gaza and Israel.

By acting now, it remains within the power of the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire, stop the imminent assault on Rafah, secure the unconditional release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas, and finally put an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

I look forward to hearing each of your responses.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Flynn MP
SNP Westminster Leader