UK Arms Sales to Israel
(Liverpool, Riverside)
(Lab)
1. What assessment his Department has made of the potential
impact of UK arms sales to Israel on (a) civilian
deaths and (b) compliance with international humanitarian law in
Gaza. (900146)
The Secretary of State for Defence ()
All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case
basis against the strategic export licence criteria. This
Government will not use any export licences to any destination
where applications are not consistent with the criteria.
I thank the Secretary of State for that answer, but since the
horrendous Hamas attacks on 7 October, 12,000 innocent
Palestinian civilians have been killed; and two thirds were women
and children. The UN Secretary-General has described Gaza as a
“graveyard of children”. Today an Israeli airstrike on a United
Nations Relief and Works Agency school has killed 12 people. The
Indonesian hospital in Gaza is currently surrounded by Israeli
Defence Forces tanks. Can the Minister confirm whether arms sold
by the UK have been used in violations of international
humanitarian law, and will he explain why arms sales
to Israel have not yet
been suspended?
The hon. Lady is right to describe as terrorism the horrendous
and heinous attacks by Hamas, without which this would not have
started. We call on all parties—the Israelis included—to ensure
that they act within international humanitarian law. It will
interest her to know that our defence exports to Israel are relatively
small—just £42 million last year—and, as I mentioned in my
initial answer, they go through a very strict criteria before
anything is exported.
Israel and Gaza
Neil O’Brien (Harborough) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to encourage de-escalation of the
conflict in Israel and Gaza.
(900147)
The Secretary of State for Defence ()
We are working with partners across the wider region, urging all
sides to de-escalate tension, facilitate the supply of
humanitarian aid, and tackle all forms of extremism.
Neil O’Brien
We are all absolutely heartbroken—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. Members must sit down again once another Member is
speaking. We cannot have two Members on their feet at the same
time.
Neil O’Brien
We are all heartbroken by what is happening in the middle east.
As Israel works to root
out Hamas terrorists, will my right hon. Friend work to ensure
that aid gets to civilians and that Israel works in a way
that is compatible with international law? As the Government work
to get hostages freed, will they also work for increasingly long
humanitarian pauses that can build towards a just and lasting
peace?
My hon. Friend is right about trying to do everything we can in
the region. That is why I sent a Royal Navy task group to try to
de-escalate tensions, including RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Argus. Those
facilities, along with others, are doing everything they can to
help lower the tensions and certainly act as deterrents, and to
ensure that we can get aid into the region. He will be interested
to hear that we have had 51 tonnes of aid delivered so far, and
there will be another flight later this month.
(Kingston upon Hull West and
Hessle) (Lab)
There are thousands of orphans and displaced families amid an
ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. What are the Government doing
to ensure that unrestricted aid is reaching all the people who
desperately need it, and, importantly, to ensure
that Israel lifts the siege
conditions?
As the hon. Lady will know, we are in favour of seeing pauses in
the action. Some people, I know, call for a ceasefire, but I
would point out that there was a ceasefire on 6 October; the
problem is that it was broken by Hamas, who wrought this carnage
on the middle east. We are doing everything possible to help get
that aid in. With the Royal Navy taskforce, infantry, and other
personnel in the region, we now have an uplift of about 600
personnel in the wider region, who are all helping to ensure that
we get the aid in and across the border once we have got it to
the region itself.
(Bournemouth East) (Con)
I welcome the Defence Secretary to his place. Behind Hamas, sits
Iran; behind Iran, sits Russia; and, increasingly, behind Russia
sits China. That is the geopolitical backdrop that will define
the next decade, with growing authoritarianism impacting on our
security and our economy. Is it now time to increase the defence
budget to 3%?
My right hon. Friend will know that we have indeed pledged to
increase defence spending to 2.5%, as economic conditions allow.
This year, it will probably be around 2.4%, so we are making good
progress. Prior to getting this role, I talked about my own
desire to see higher defence spending, because we are living in a
much less certain world, with many more variables. He is right to
point out Iran’s action, with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian
militias in Iraq, and Houthis in Yemen very much driving the
situation.
(Denton and Reddish)
(Lab)
The reality is that neither the long-term security
of Israel nor justice for
the Palestinians will be found through bombs and bullets. As an
international community, we need to be doing all we can to move
to an enduring cessation of the violence, but while we are doing
that, can the Secretary of State say how the UK armed forces will
be utilising their capacity to help those getting aid into Gaza
to get much bigger quantities in than is happening at the
moment?
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about the UK’s desire to
do that, and I have talked about how we have deployed a large
increase in personnel in the region to work with various
Governments. I have personally spoken to most of the middle
eastern Governments, and on those calls the first thing they have
done is welcome our deterrent and the fact that we have brought
such a large amount of aid—now £30 million—to help the
Palestinians. It is not just the hostages themselves who are
being held hostage; the population of Gaza are being held hostage
by Hamas, and therefore the solution is to deal with Hamas
themselves.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
(Wentworth and Dearne)
(Lab)
After nearly three months, it is very good to finally welcome the
Defence Secretary to the Dispatch Box for the first time. He
reflects the deep concern about the humanitarian catastrophe in
Gaza and the risks of wider escalation. Labour totally condemns
Hamas terrorism. We back Israel’s right to defend itself, but
require it to meet its duties under international law and lift
the siege conditions, and we want to see the breaks in fighting
extended to get much more aid in and the hostages out. We back
the military deployments to the region to support wider security,
but with attacks against US personnel rising, what action is the
Defence Secretary taking to increase protection for UK personnel
in the middle east?
First, Mr Speaker, it is good to be at the Dispatch Box opposite
the right hon. Gentleman. I thank him, as well as yourself and
others, for their condolences when I was not able to attend the
first Defence questions.
In terms of protecting our own personnel, I have asked the Chief
of the Defence Staff to review their position. I made reference
to the additional personnel who have moved to the region, but did
not mention that several have been moved to Tel Aviv, Beirut and
Jordan, all with the aim of protecting both British military
personnel and British citizens in the region. We keep that matter
under constant review.
Would the Defence Secretary agree that over the past decade,
there has been an international failure to pursue a Palestinian
peace settlement and tackle the Hamas threat? Middle east
escalation risks were not mentioned in the Government’s defence
Command Paper update, nor were Hamas or Palestine. With threats
increasing, is the Defence Secretary pursuing that defence plan
in full, including further deep cuts to the British Army?
The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that nobody, including
the Israelis, saw what Hamas were about to do coming. That points
to the need for much greater surveillance, but also—much wider
than that—the need to pursue the two-state solution, which is
official British policy and is something that the world must do
as this conflict, we hope, comes to an end.
The answer to the right hon. Gentleman’s question about being
able to deploy British troops and, indeed, assets is that when I
asked the question, the answer came back immediately: “Yes, we
can do it, and there is more that we could do should we need to.”
I am satisfied that we cut our cloth in order to react to events
around the world, which of course came on top of what we are
doing in Kosovo and elsewhere. We will certainly make sure that
we maintain the resources to carry out those important missions.
RAF Aid Flights to the Middle East
(Slough) (Lab)
9. What steps he is taking to increase the number of RAF aid
flights to the middle east. (900155)
(Lewisham East) (Lab)
13. What steps he is taking to increase the number of RAF aid
flights to the middle east. (900162)
The Secretary of State for Defence ()
Defence assets continue to be ready to supply humanitarian
support to the region. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the delivery
of aid is impeded by the many challenges around Gaza, but so far
we have airlifted 51 tonnes of aid to the country.
Mr Dhesi
As I have said previously, I want to see an end to the violence
in the middle east, although I acknowledge that
neither Israel nor Hamas agreed
to an immediate ceasefire. While negotiations to deliver an
enduring peace are ongoing, we must urgently accelerate the
delivery of aid via the RAF to alleviate human suffering on the
ground. Can the Secretary of State explain why, within two weeks
of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, nearly 100 tonnes of aid
was delivered there, yet since the Israel-Hamas war broke out
more than a month ago, only 50 tonnes has been delivered by the
RAF?
I can. The difference is a war zone. When I said that we had
delivered “to the country”, I meant, of course, to Egypt. From
there we have to get the aid across the Rafah crossing, which,
for all the reasons of complexity, is not always open or
available. There are many restrictions to getting that aid in,
but I am working very hard on that. The problem is not a lack of
resource; we have put in £30 million, more than doubling the
existing £27 million, and I can assure the hon. Gentleman that
there are further flights leaving later this month.
For more than a month we have witnessed a distressing
humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza. It is welcome that the
RAF is flying UK humanitarian aid to the region, but so far we
have seen only three RAF flights. When will the Government
increase the number of flights and the amount of aid given to
Palestinians, who have suffered so much and who deserve, at the
very least, the basic essentials to try to survive?
The issue is not getting the aid to the region; we could fly more
aircraft. The issue is getting the aid into Gaza itself, and in
that regard we have the problem of Hamas, a terrorist
organisation not in the least bit interested in looking after the
citizens of Gaza, and, of course, the problem of the Rafah
crossing, which is opened and closed on a fairly arbitrary basis.
However, I can assure the hon. Lady that we are working very hard
with all the different bodies and Governments in the region to
get more of that aid in as quickly as possible. The capacity
constraint is not flying it to the region.
RAF Surveillance Aircraft
(Tiverton and Honiton)
(LD)
19. What assessment his Department has made of the potential
impact of RAF surveillance aircraft on UK strategy and operations
overseas. (900169)
The Minister for Armed Forces ()
I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising the work of the slightly
less glamorous part of the Royal Air Force that does
long-distance surveillance missions. They are an important part
of the UK’s defence strategy and our ability to monitor and
observe what our adversaries are doing. Their work over the past
year above the north Atlantic and the high north, the Baltic, the
Black sea, the eastern Mediterranean and across the middle east
has been central to defence operations. The team at RAF
Waddington and at Lossiemouth should be congratulated.
We understand that UK surveillance assets such as Rivet Joint are
providing surveillance support to Israel I
appreciate that, for reasons of operational security, the
Minister cannot comment on the operational specifics of this
activity, but will he rule out the possibility that these
platforms are being used to support target acquisition?
While I was grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his initial
question, he also gives me an opportunity to make an important
clarification. Rivet Joint is not flying in support
of Israel it is flying to
observe the risk of escalation in the region, to inform decision
making in the UK MOD, and for nothing else.
(Harrogate and Knaresborough)
(Con)
T5. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we are more secure as a
country when the world is a safer and more peaceful place, and
that a successful two-state solution for the Israel and Palestine
question is therefore a part of our own national security
too?(900175)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. The way that we
can start along that path is that Hamas could release the 242
innocent civilians that they are holding hostage, which includes
some Brits. That would open the door to starting to be able to
get a resolution. That is what they should do, but sadly, I doubt
that they are about to.
(Bolton North East) (Con)
Local mosques in Bolton are collecting donations, yet there seem
to be major problems in getting those donations and aid into
Gaza. What discussions is the Department having with the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Office and the Israeli Government
about ensuring that those donations get to those most in need?
Not doing so will only escalate the conflict.
As I have described, it is a complex position on the ground to
get the aid all the way through, but I am happy to either meet or
take details from my hon. Friend to ensure that those donations
get where they are intended.
(Hendon) (Con)
This weekend we witnessed the third attack in a year on a
commercial vessel in international waters. The cargo ship Galaxy
Leader has been described by the Israeli Government as British
owned and Japanese operated. What actions will the Minister take
to prevent such acts of terrorism on British vessels?
We are very aware of the incident that my hon. Friend describes.
The US navy has a presence in the Red sea, and the Royal Navy
always keeps under review options to deploy there too.
(Angus) (SNP)
The Secretary of State and his predecessors rightly called out
the wanton and unlawful destruction of civilian infrastructure in
Ukraine—homes, hospitals and schools. Why can they not show equal
uproar at what is happening to civilians in Gaza?
There is a principle in international law that a country can
defend itself. Ukraine was attacked for absolutely no reason
whatsoever. While we call on Israel both
privately and publicly, to protect civilians in whatever way it
can, Hamas are using civilians as human shields, and deliberately
using the infrastructure on top of them to hide behind. I would
have thought that the hon. Gentleman could see the difference.
