00:00As someone with deep ties to Palestine, how do you personally cope with the helplessness of witnessing this level of suffering from a distance?
00:10I think it's incredibly difficult. I think we're really at a loss for words, especially as Palestinians in the UK and everywhere else.
00:19I mean, I think I represent an organisation called the British Palestinian Committee.
00:23And we saw a statement yesterday come out from the UK government, along with other European governments, condemning effectively the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
00:36But actually, we need to really take a step back and take a look at the reality of this moment and the context of the statement came in.
00:42So on Sunday, 92 people were shot dead while trying to get food at eight points in north and south Gaza for them and their families.
00:50Yesterday, Israeli tanks began a ground invasion of Deir al-Baleh, where thousands are displaced and forcibly starved people are sheltering, marking yet another escalation.
00:59And the first time, in fact, that that area has been invaded by ground.
01:05We've seen the executive director of UNICEF tell the world that on average, 28 children per day, that's the equivalent to one whole class of school children per day for 650 plus days, have now been murdered.
01:17And experts are warning that the extent of forced starvation has become so bad that even if food gets to people now immediately, it'll be too late for many of them.
01:26So these are not just people. These are our friends. These are our colleagues.
01:29They're either being massacred, tortured or slowly starved.
01:32It's everyone. It's children. It's mothers. It's fathers, doctors, nurses, teachers, street sweepers and shopkeepers, all being completely stripped of their dignity,
01:41made to beg for food at aid stations where they're being lured out and then exterminated.
01:45Terminated. Now, what I would say about the statement the government has made, you know, not only has the UK government done nothing to stop this whatsoever,
01:54it's actually continued to provide diplomatic and military support to the very forces carrying out these war crimes,
02:00providing crucial parts for the F-35 fighter jets, allowing use of their air bases in Cyprus, training IOF soldiers in the UK on UK soil.
02:09So the statement that we saw yesterday is both woefully inadequate, more than that, it's cynical and it's disingenuous,
02:17and it really is an insult to the intelligence of the wider British public.
