Rishi Sunak has backed “specific pauses” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas to allow British nationals to escape Gaza and let aid in but rejected calls for a ceasefire.
The Prime Minister said breaks in fighting as Israel pummels the small territory, which is home to more than two million Palestinians, are necessary to get hostages released as well.
He said the pauses had been discussed at the United Nations as he announced that an RAF plane is flying to Egypt with 21 tonnes of humanitarian supplies.
More than 80 MPs have urged the Government to call for a ceasefire, as five UK nationals remain missing, some of whom are believed to be being held hostage in Gaza.
Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy leader in the Commons, said Britain has a “human responsibility” to all civilians in Gaza but particularly so to UK nationals who she said are in hospitals in Gaza with no food, no water, no medicine and “no way out”.
“How much worse does the situation have to get before he will join us in calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?” she asked at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Mr Sunak said that he has said since the conflict reignited with Hamas’s atrocity that “the first and most important principle is that Israel has the right to defend itself under international law”.
“Our support for that position is absolute and unchanged,” he said.
“From the start we’ve also said that we do want British nationals to be able to leave Gaza, and we want for hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid to get in.
“We recognise for all of that to happen there has to be a safer environment which of course necessitates specific pauses as distinct from a ceasefire.”
Ms Black argued that joining calls for a ceasefire is the “best and maybe the only way to stop this conflict escalating beyond all control”.
But Mr Sunak said that Israel has the “right to protect itself” after suffering a “shockingly brutal terrorist attack” at the hands of Hamas.
An RAF C-17 aircraft was en route to Egypt from Brize Norton to deliver the British aid to Palestinian civilians.
Mr Sunak said: “Our team are on the ground ready to receive, we will continue to do everything we can do increase the flow of aid – including fuel – into Gaza.”
The aid shipment comes after the Prime Minister last week announced the UK was increasing aid support by £30 million to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, taking funding this year up to £57 million.
The C-17 departed with a cargo of 76,800 wound care packs, 1,350 water filters and 2,560 solar lights, with the aid set to be distributed through the Egyptian Red Crescent, according to the Ministry of Defence.
As part of Tel Aviv’s retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 raids that left 1,400 Israelis dead, it imposed a siege on the territory, blocking essentials such as water, food and fuel from entering.
Aid trucks have been permitted to reach Palestinians only in the past days.
British aid charity Oxfam said starvation was being used “as a weapon of war” as it repeated its call for more aid to be allowed into the bombarded 25-mile strip.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has separately warned that without immediate deliveries of fuel it will soon have to sharply reduce relief operations to Gaza.
Health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory said on Wednesday that the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets continued striking the territory overnight.
The Gazan health ministry said more than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, including some 2,300 children.
The Israeli military said its strikes had killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centres, weapons storehouses and other military targets, which it has accused Hamas of hiding among Gaza’s civilian population.
The continuation of the battle between Tel Aviv and Hamas comes as a UK minister urged the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to retract remarks that have sparked a diplomatic storm.
Mr Guterres told a UN Security Council meeting in New York that the “attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum” and had occurred after the Palestinian people had been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.
In comments made on Tuesday, the UN chief also expressed concern that “clear violations of international humanitarian law” had been committed by Israel in Gaza during its fightback.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick, a close ally of Mr Sunak, said the comments were “wrong” and that Mr Guterres should “retract that” if he was “implying there is any justification for” the killings by Palestinian militants.
The Conservative politician said it was “not for me to say” whether the UN chief should stand down following a call by Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan for Mr Guterres to resign.