The following Statement was made in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 June.
“With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a Statement on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The two-state solution is in peril. There is catastrophic conflict in Gaza and a shocking deterioration in the West Bank. This is an affront to the rights of Palestinians, but it is also against the interests of Israelis; against their long-term security and their democracy. Today, I will update the House on new actions we are taking to uphold human rights and defend the vision and viability of two states living side by side in peace.
In 2024, we saw the worst settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in the last two decades, and 2025 is on track to be just as violent. Between 1996 and 2023, an average of seven illegal settler outposts were established annually. In 2024, settlers erected 59. These outposts are illegal under both Israeli and international law. Two weeks ago, the Israeli Government themselves announced 22 new settlements in the West Bank. Every outpost and every building the settlers erect is a flagrant breach of international law and disregards the views of Israel’s international partners. There are now in excess of 500,000 settlers living in the West Bank and over 100,000 in east Jerusalem, the territory that must form the heart of a sovereign, viable and free Palestine.
The sharp growth in settlements alone is dangerous enough, but it has been accompanied by a steep rise in settler violence and extremist rhetoric. Itamar Ben-Gvir has led seven provocative intrusions into Haram al-Sharif since 2022. In 2023, settlers rampaged through the village of Huwara, in what Israel’s own West Bank military commander described as a ‘pogrom done by outlaws’. Last month, the villagers of Mughayyir al-Deir fled their homes in fear after the construction of an illegal outpost 100 metres away. This month, settlers attacked the town of Deir Dibwan. They set fire to houses and injured residents. This violence and rhetoric are deeply concerning. They are an assault not just on Palestinian communities but on the very fundamentals of a two-state solution. This is an attempt to entrench a one-state reality where there are no equal rights.
The two-state solution remains the only viable framework for a just and lasting peace—and I know that it is supported on every side of this House—with Israelis living in secure borders, recognised and at peace with their neighbours, and free from the threat of terrorism; and with Palestinians living in their own state, with dignity and security, free of occupation.
We are steadfastly committed to defending that vision, not just with words but with action. That is why we have pledged £101 million in additional support to the Palestinian people this year, and why we are working to strengthen and reform the Palestinian Authority. It is why my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary signed a landmark agreement with Prime Minister Mustafa, and why my right honourable friend the Prime Minister welcomed him to Downing Street. It is why we are clear that Hamas must release the hostages immediately and unconditionally, and that Hamas can have no role in Palestinian governance. It is also why we are committed to working with civil society, Israeli and Palestinian, to support those who believe in peace and coexistence. However, the gravity of the situation demands further action.
The reality is that these human rights abuses, the incitement to violence and the extremist rhetoric come not just from an uncontrolled fringe but from individuals who are Ministers in this Israeli Government. We must hold them to account and protect the viability of the two-state solution. So today we are sanctioning Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. We are acting alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, which have also announced their own measures today.
These two men are responsible for inciting settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank—violence that has led to the death of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole towns and villages. That violence constitutes an abuse of Palestinians’ human rights. It is cruel, it is degrading, and it is completely unacceptable. We have told the Israeli Government repeatedly that we would take tougher action if this did not stop. It still did not stop: the appalling rhetoric has continued unchecked; and violent perpetrators continue to act with impunity and encouragement.
Let me tell the House that, when we say something, we mean it. Today, we and our partners have shown extremists that we will not sit by while they wreck the prospects of future peace.
Our actions today do not diminish our support for the security of Israel and the Israeli people. The agendas of those two men are not even supported by the majority of Israelis, who recognise that those individuals are not working in their interest. As the Foreign Secretary said to this House last month, we want a strong friendship with Israel based on shared values and our many close ties. Our condemnation of Hamas—a proscribed organisation—and of the appalling attacks of 7 October is unequivocal. Our commitment to the security of Israelis and the future of Israel is unwavering. We will continue to press for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, for the release of the hostages still held so cruelly by Hamas, and for a ramping up of aid to those Gazans in desperate need. The repeated threats by Hamas to the lives of the hostages are grotesque and prolong the agony of their families and loved ones. Hamas should release all the hostages immediately and unconditionally.
The situation in the West Bank cannot be seen in isolation from events in Gaza. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians, the denial of essential aid, and the creation of new Israeli settlements in the strip, is equally appalling and dangerous. This Government will never accept the unlawful transfer of Gazans from or within Gaza, or any reduction in the territory of the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic. As Israel’s ground and air operations expand, Gazans have now been pushed into less than 20% of the territory. Hospitals have been damaged and destroyed. The entire population of Gaza is now at risk of famine.
Meanwhile, Israel’s newly introduced measures for aid endanger civilians and foster desperation. They are inhumane. The Red Cross field hospital in Rafah reported last week that it has responded to an unprecedented five mass-casualty incidents in the two weeks prior. In each case, Palestinians have been killed or injured trying to access aid in Gaza. Desperate civilians who have endured 20 months of war should never face the risk of death or injury simply to feed themselves and their families.
We need further action from the Israeli Government now to lift all restrictions on aid, to enable the UN and aid partners to do their work, and to ensure that food and other critical supplies can reach people safely wherever they are. We will continue to support the UN and other trusted non-governmental organisations as the most effective and principled partners for aid delivery. Our support has meant that over 465,000 people have received essential healthcare, 640,000 have received food, and 275,000 have improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.
We of course support the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We welcome the initiative of France and Saudi Arabia to chair an international conference next week to advance a two-state solution. A two-state solution is the only way to bring the long-lasting peace that Israelis and Palestinians deserve, but it cannot remain an empty slogan repeated by generations of diplomats and politicians while increasingly divorced from the reality on the ground. Mr Smotrich has said there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. Mr Ben-Gvir has spoken of his rights in the West Bank—a territory that his Government are occupying—as being more important than the rights of millions of Palestinians. Their own words condemn them.
To defend those Palestinians’ rights, to protect the two-state solution and to see Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in safety and security, this Government are taking action. I commend this Statement to the House”.
My Lords, I shall now repeat a Statement made earlier today in another place by my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary. The Statement is as follows:
“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will remind the House that the Foreign Office has been responding to two crises this past week. My honourable friend Minister Falconer will update the House on the Government’s extensive efforts to assist those who lost loved ones in Thursday’s devastating Air India plane crash. Just nine days ago, I was in Delhi, strengthening our friendship. Our nations are mourning together, and my thoughts are with all those suffering such terrible loss.
With permission, I will now turn to the Middle East. Early last Friday morning, Israel launched extensive strikes across Iran. The targets included military sites, the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, key commanders and nuclear scientists. The last 72 hours have seen Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes across Israel, killing at least 21 Israelis and injuring hundreds more, and Israeli strikes have continued, including on targets in Tehran, with the Iranian authorities reporting scores of civilian casualties.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that his operations will
‘continue for as many days as it takes to remove the threat’.
Supreme Leader Khamenei has said that Israel ‘must expect severe punishment’.
In such a crisis, our first priority is, of course, the welfare of British nationals. On Friday, we swiftly stood up crisis teams in London and the region. Yesterday, I announced that we now advise against all travel to Israel; that is as well as our long-standing advice not to travel to Iran. Today, I can update the House: we are asking all British nationals in Israel to register their presence with the FCDO so that we can share important information on the situation and leaving the country.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. We have seen Israel and Iran launch fresh attacks against one another yesterday and, sadly, again today, although it is worth noting that Israel is targeting predominantly nuclear and military sites, whereas Iran seems to be just launching missiles indiscriminately into civilian areas. This is a grave situation and we face the very real possibility that it could yet get a lot worse.
I agree with the Foreign Secretary that our first priority must be to ensure that British citizens in Israel are supported to get out of the region as quickly as possible. It is reported that approximately 40,000 tourists are currently stranded in Israel. As the Minister said, flight routes and land borders have been closed. I appreciate that this is a highly changeable situation, but I hope the Minister can set out the Government’s plans for making sure that British citizens are brought out of harm’s way as quickly as possible.
I totally understand that the Foreign Office is faced with a serious challenge, but we must remember that for British citizens on the ground this is a terrifying and desperately stressful situation. James Eden, a 72 year-old grandfather from my home city of Newcastle, is hoping to take a four-hour bus ride through the Negev and then cross to Egypt before flying home. Despite being a British citizen in a country that the FCDO has now put on its red list, Mr Eden has said of the Foreign Office that all it does is send alerts. On the support that the Foreign Office is providing to help him escape, Mr Eden said, “They are not going to stop me, but they are not going to help me get out of Egypt either”. It is deeply concerning that British citizens are being left in the lurch over their evacuation from what the FCDO has recognised as a high-risk area. I understand the limitations that the Foreign Office has with regard to the closure of airspace, et cetera, but we need to remember that normal people are now in a war zone, and they need all the support, reassurance and help they can get from the Foreign Office in getting out of harm’s way and back home to their families in the UK.
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I can announce today that we are also further updating our travel advice to signpost border crossing points, and we are sending rapid deployment teams to Egypt and Jordan to bolster our consular presence near the border with Israel. That presence has already been supporting British nationals on the ground. Israel and Iran have closed their airspace until further notice, and our ability to provide support in Iran is therefore extremely limited. British nationals in the region should closely monitor our travel advice for further updates. The situation remains fast-moving. We expect more strikes in the days to come. This is a moment of grave danger for the region. I want to be clear: the United Kingdom was not involved in the strikes against Iran. This is military action conducted by Israel.
It should come as no surprise that Israel considers the Iranian nuclear programme an existential threat. Khamenei said in 2018 that Israel was a ‘cancerous tumour’ that should be ‘removed and eradicated’. We have always supported Israeli security. That is why Britain has sought to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon through extensive diplomacy. We agree with President Trump when he says that negotiations are necessary and must lead to a deal. This has long been the view of the so-called E3—Britain, France and Germany, with whom we have worked so closely on this issue. It is the view of all of the G7, who have backed the efforts of President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff. For more than two decades, it has been the cross-party view in this House. Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Lord Hague of Richmond led diplomatic efforts on this issue, as did Baroness May of Maidenhead and the former right honourable Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. This Government have continued to pursue negotiations, joining France and Germany in five rounds of talks with Iran this year alone. Ours is a hard-headed, realist assessment of how best to tackle this grave threat. Fundamentally, no military action can put an end to Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Just last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors passed a non-compliance resolution against Iran, the first such IAEA finding in 14 years. The director-general’s comprehensive report details Iran’s failure to declare nuclear materials. Iran remains the only state without nuclear weapons accumulating uranium at such dangerously high levels. Its total enriched stockpile is now 40 times the limit in the JCPOA. Its nuclear programme is part of a wider pattern of destabilising activity. The Government have taken firm action in response.
When Iran transferred ballistic missiles for use in Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, we imposed extensive sanctions, including against Iran Air, and we cancelled our bilateral air services agreement. In the face of unacceptable IRGC threats here in the United Kingdom —with some 20 foiled plots since 2022—the Crown Prosecution Service has for the first time charged Iranian nationals under the National Security Act, and we have placed the Iranian state, including the IRGC, on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme.
A widening war would have grave and unpredictable consequences, including for our partners in Jordan and the Gulf: the horrors of Gaza worsening, tensions in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq rising, and the Houthi threat continuing. That is why the Government’s firm view is—as it was last October, at the time of the ballistic missile attack on Israel—that further escalation in the Middle East is not in Britain’s interests, or in the interests of Israel, Iran or the region. There are hundreds of thousands of British nationals living in the region and, with Iran a major oil producer and one fifth of total world oil consumption flowing through the strait of Hormuz, escalating conflict poses real risks for the global economy. As missiles rain down, Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens, but our priority now is de-escalation. Our message to both Israel and Iran is clear: step back, show restraint, do not get pulled ever deeper into a catastrophic conflict, the consequences of which nobody can control.
The Prime Minister chaired COBRA to discuss the situation last Friday, and spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Prime Minister is now at the G7 summit in Canada, discussing with our closest allies how to ease tensions. The Government have deployed additional assets to the region, including jets for contingency support for UK forces and, potentially, our regional allies concerned about the escalating conflict. In the last 72 hours, my honourable friend the Minister for the Middle East and I have been working flat out trying to carve out space for diplomacy. I have spoken to Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar and the Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi, underlining Britain’s focus on de-escalation. I have also met the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal, and had calls with US Secretary of State Rubio, EU High Representative Kallas, and my counterparts from France and Germany, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Those conversations are part of a collective drive to prevent a spiralling conflict.
This new crisis has arisen as the appalling situation in Gaza continues. This weekend, hospitals in Gaza reported that over 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured while trying to access food. This Government will not take our eye off the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. We will not stop calling for aid restrictions to be lifted and for an immediate ceasefire, and we will not forget about the hostages. This morning I met Yocheved Lifschitz and her family, whose courage and dignity in the face of Hamas’s barbarism were a reminder of the plight of those still cruelly held in Gaza. We will not stop striving to free the hostages and end the war. Our vision remains unchanged: an end to Iran’s nuclear programme and destabilising regional activity, Israel secure in its borders and at peace with its neighbours, and a sovereign Palestinian state, as part of a two-state solution. Diplomacy is indispensable to each of those goals. Britain will keep pressing all sides to choose a diplomatic path out of this crisis. I commend this Statement to the House”.
Further to this point, I take the opportunity to ask the Minister what steps the Government are going to take to protect civilians in Israel from falling victim to Iranian rocket attacks. As I said, Iran has deliberately targeted civilian communities in places such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, and the UK has a capacity to support Israel in anti-air operations which will help to protect civilians from further harm. I hope the Minister can update the House on what plans the Government have to use UK assets to defend against Iranian attacks on civilian targets. If this is no longer the ambition of the Government, what has changed since the last time, when the UK military helped to bring down missiles and drones?
Throughout this time of crisis we need to be clear in our resolve that Iran should never have nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly defied international conventions, undermined regional peace, and supported extremist groups across the Middle East. It continues to arm and finance proxies responsible for violence in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and, of course, Israel. Iranian leaders have been brutally clear in their stated desire to completely eradicate the State of Israel, and we should listen to what they have said on this. A nuclear-armed Iran would not be a stabilising force—far from it. It would be a threat multiplier, emboldening aggression, enabling coercion, and potentially triggering a regional arms race from which it may not be possible to return. We must never allow the bankrollers of Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to gain access to that sort of weaponry.
As the Minister said, the IAEA has said that as of 17 May Iran has amassed 408 kilograms of uranium, enriched up to 60%. That material is a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The agency has said that Iran is now
“the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such material”,
which is of “serious concern”. That is enough uranium to make several nuclear bombs. The Iranian Government have always claimed that they want to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, but this, as the IAEA has made clear, is palpable nonsense. We should be working with and fully supporting our allies, including Israel, to ensure that Iran never has access to this sort of weaponry. The warning signs are flashing and I hope the Minister can tell us what steps the Government are taking now to make sure that this fear is not realised. Israel is engaged in an existential fight for its own survival as a nation, but it is also fighting dangerous religious extremism on behalf of the rest of the liberal free world. It should have our full support in that fight.
With regard to the announcement about sanctions last week, it is now more important than ever that we maintain a constructive, effective and open dialogue with Israel. We must be clear that we support it and its civilians when they are targeted by Iran, which has killed numerous civilians in its attacks over the weekend. Can the Minister assure the House that the relationship and leverage so often referred to by the Government have not been negatively affected by the decision to sanction the Israeli Finance and National Security Ministers? I would also appreciate further clarification from the Minister about why this decision was reached. The sanctions imposed on Mr Ben-Gvir and Mr Smotrich —who have said, I completely agree, many outrageous things—ban them from entering the UK and freeze any assets that they have in the United Kingdom. Can the Minister explain why these specific sanctions were chosen? Was there a high chance that Messrs Ben-Gvir and Smotrich would travel to the UK to
“incite violence against the Palestinian people”?
Do these men have substantial assets in the UK which would enable them to do this?
We must ensure that we approach matters of this importance and delicacy with a clear strategy and an eye to the future. We cannot make decisions which seriously change our international relations merely to appease political support from certain sections of society, some of them in this country. In the face of this deeply volatile and dangerous moment in the Middle East, the Government must demonstrate clarity, consistency and compassion. British citizens stranded in a conflict zone must be our immediate priority, as the Minister has said. At the same time, we must stand firm with our allies against attacks on civilians, ensuring that the UK does all it can to uphold international security. That means using our diplomatic leverage wisely, not undermining it through ill-considered sanctions that risk damaging vital relationships. Above all, we must maintain our unwavering resolve to prevent Iran, a state that arms violent proxies and threatens regional peace, from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. The challenges are immense, but so, too, is our responsibility, so I urge the Minister to set out today how the Government will meet this moment with the seriousness and the strategic foresight that it demands.