Wes Streeting sharply criticises Israeli military action in Gaza, calling the situation “utterly horrific and intolerable”. The health secretary says the government is working “intensively” to unblock aid corridors and to bring an end to the “bloody conflict”. Streeting stops short of calling it a “genocide” but says MPs feel “the same frustration as people marching in the streets”. Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The situation in Gaza, as the Prime Minister has said repeatedly, is utterly horrific and intolerable.
00:06The scale of loss of civilian life, the attack on humanitarian aid workers that we've seen,
00:13the destruction of civilian facilities, including hospitals, has been a horror show, frankly.
00:19And we've worked with other international allies and partners to try and unblock the barriers to aid,
00:27to end the siege in Gaza, to get aid in and people out of harm's way, including children,
00:32that we've been successfully evacuating for treatment here in the UK, thanks to generous support.
00:39Is that enough? Has the international leadership delivered the results that we want to see?
00:45No. And the Prime Minister, I mean, today he's meeting the King of Jordan, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary.
00:52They are working intensively with international allies and partners in the region and internationally
00:59to try and put pressure on the Israelis to help bring an end to this bloody conflict
01:04and the intolerable loss of civilian life that we see.
01:07Well, the question of whether it meets the bar for genocide is a question for international courts to weigh up.
01:15So whether or not it meets the legal bar, frankly, I'm not qualified to judge.
01:19Whether or not we use that term and whether or not the courts make that judgment
01:26doesn't alter the fact that we can see with our own eyes that innocent children are dying in great numbers.
01:35They are either starving or they are being bombed.
01:38And it's not just children, it's other innocent civilians, it's civilian infrastructure.
01:42What happened in terms of the abduction of Israeli hostages on that appalling day?
01:50I mean, it was barbaric and we condemn it.
01:53But it is no justification for what we are seeing now inflicted on innocent people in Gaza.
01:59And that's why the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary are working intensively with international allies
02:04to try and bring an end to this, the return of the hostages, the ceasefire we want to see
02:08and crucially the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
02:11And believe me, those of us who are in positions of power in government
02:15feel the same frustration as the people who are out marching on the streets
02:20because we want to see an end to this conflict.
02:23We want to see peace for Israelis and for Palestinians
02:26and we want to see justice and statehood for the Palestinian people.