The legislation I have announced today will be in place within 6 to 9 months and we will also take more immediate steps. Today we are sanctioning a further set of extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities. And I can also announce that we are extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including crucially seeking to present the development of E1. I also want to address the question of arms sales. We have already suspended over 30 arms licences used by the IDF in Gaza. That suspension remains fully in place. We will now also refuse all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation, in effect a double lock against arms sales. This means the ban on such exports will now remain as long as the occupation persists. To advance the two state solution, we also need viable and effective Palestinian governance. On the question of genocide, the UK has always supported full, robust and fair judicial processes to consider allegations, with final determinations made by competent courts before the British government reaches a conclusion. This has been the case for all of the genocides since the 1948 Genocide Convention: Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia, and acts against the Yazidi people. This will remain our policy. It is right that this issue has been brought before the ICJ and I want to make it clear that we support the Court in coming to its determination. So accountability for what has happened in Gaza matters. But even more urgent is action to address the ongoing crisis. Because today in Gaza, the death and suffering continue. Nearly a year ago, Madame Deputy Speaker, a ceasefire was declared. Yet over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since. And the people of Gaza are experiencing a totally avoidable humanitarian catastrophe, I am afraid, driven by decisions of the Israeli government. Last week I talked to courageous doctors and humanitarian aid workers who have served in Gaza. It was a heartbreaking conversation. They recounted: Children dying waiting for medical treatment. People forced to live next to open sewage and without shelter. And food insecurity rampant. I’m sure the whole House agrees, this is unconscionable. So I pledge we will continue to do everything we can to provide all the humanitarian support possible to help the people of Gaza. UK-supported hospitals in Gaza will enable around 800,000 medical consultations this year and essential health services for patients. UK expertise will deliver care to over a thousand child amputees. And we recently welcomed another wave of students from Gaza coming to study in Britain and we will welcome more. But in truth, unless Israel changes course, the situation will remain dire. So we are taking further steps – both ourselves and with others. Our extension of the global human rights sanctions regime will enable us to target those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law, whether in Gaza or anywhere else in the world. And we will at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month shine the clearest and harshest spotlight on what is happening and what must change. And with Jordan, we will convene countries across the world to lead a call for action on health and humanitarian access. We will also lend the UK’s voice to the growing global alliance of countries - led by Arab partners in the region - calling for the full implementation of the US-led 20 point plan, the rejection of extremism, and for a lasting end to the cycles of violence. As we implement the policy measures I have announced today, we will continue to assess the government of Israel by its actions. We want to see a new approach – in both Gaza and the West Bank. Madame Deputy Speaker, today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two state solution. We call out what is unlawful. We act on the import of goods from illegal settlements. We ban advertising of illegal settlements We act on services to prevent new settlement expansion. We act on settler violence. We support accountability for what has happened in Gaza. And we pledge to galvanise the international community to confront the ongoing and urgent humanitarian crisis. Above all, we say: Britain is not silent in the face of deep injustice and nor is it powerless. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-oral-statement-on-israel-palestine
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