By Rachael Bunyan
Published: 08:23, 14 November 2023 | Updated: 08:28, 14 November 2023
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Rishi Sunak says ‘too many civilians’ are dying in Gaza Last night, Rishi Sunak said ‘too many civilians’ are dying in Gaza and that there needs to be ‘unhindered humanitarian access and urgent and substantive humanitarian pauses’.
The PM told the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London: ‘There are things that Israel must do as part of this response.
‘We’ve been clear that they must act within international law, they must take all measures to protect innocent civilians, including at hospitals, stop extremist violence in the West Bank and allow more aid into Gaza… too many civilians are losing their lives.
‘That’s why I’ve doubled our aid to Gaza and why we continue to press both at the United Nations and directly with Israel for unhindered humanitarian access and urgent and substantive humanitarian pauses.
‘We want aid coming in by air, land and sea, and we’re ready to use our bases in Cyprus as a staging post.’
US President Biden says hospitals ‘must be protected’ amid heavy fightingIsraeli tanks were massed near the gates of Gaza’s main hospital where Palestinians were trapped in dire conditions on Tuesday as US President Joe Biden pressed Israel to protect the complex.
After days of heavy air strikes around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were metres from the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old war.
Israel accuses Hamas fighters of using tunnels under the hospital as a command ‘node’, effectively engaging the sick and injured as human shields. It is a charge that Hamas denies.
Biden called on Israel to use ‘less intrusive action relative to the hospital’, some of his most pointed comments on Israeli operations to date. ‘The hospital must be protected,’ he told reporters.
Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner insisted Al-Shifa was ‘central in Hamas’s command and control capabilities’, but said troops were currently ‘stand-offish’.
‘The idea is to try to evacuate the people, evacuate as many as possible,’ he said.
Gaza’s largest hospital is turning into a ‘cemetery’, WHO warns The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said Gaza’s largest hospital is turning into a ‘cemetery’ where dead bodies are lying on the ground.
After days of heavy air strikes around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were metres (yards) from the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old war.
‘Around the hospital there are dead bodies which cannot be taken care of or not even be buried or taken away to any sort of morgue,’ WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
‘The hospital is not working at all any more as it should. It’s nearly a cemetery,’ Lindemeier added.