A Labour MP has compared the suggested targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli drones to a “warped video game”.
Patricia Ferguson, who represents Glasgow West, said she feared MPs and the wider public were in danger of becoming desensitised to the brutality associated with the war.
Ms Ferguson referenced recent parliamentary evidence given by retired vascular surgeon Professor Nizam Mamode, who has returned from the region and described children being targeted by Israeli forces.
Since the Israeli operation in response to the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, the official death toll in Gaza is 43,391 people, of which 16,500 are children, with 10,000 people still missing, she said.
The shocking part of the statistics is the 16,000 children killed doesn't refer to those who have been maimed
Ms Ferguson told a Westminster Hall debate: “The Lancet has recently published a report that suggests the death toll may actually be closer to 186,000. So it’s almost got to the point where the numbers are so overwhelming that we’re in danger of becoming inured to what they represent.”
She added: “I thought I had seen and heard it all, the death, the disease and sheer brutality reported on our TV screens night, after night. But then I went to Professor Mamode’s presentation. He spoke calmly and slowly about his experiences in Palestine, using slides and a video diary.
“He demonstrated the symmetrical puncture wounds on a dead child’s body. Wounds in the region of the body’s major arteries that were too precise to have been the work of a human sniper. They were the work of drones. Targeted at innocent civilians, and in this case, a child.”
An emotional Ms Ferguson went on to say: “For me it was the cold calculation of using machines to kill children, I thought it was some kind of warped video game that was the most disturbing aspect of Professor Mamode’s presentation which made those statistics… mean a great deal.”
Ms Ferguson, who chairs the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, called for the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas to be released and for the UK Government to support a ceasefire at the UN Security Council on Tuesday evening.
She said she would like to see wounded children being brought to the UK and Europe to be treated.
Whilst Israel has every right to respond to the awful attacks of Hamas on October 7, the disregard for civilian lives and failure to ensure adequate humanitarian access during their response is completely unacceptable
“The shocking part of the statistics is the 16,000 children killed doesn’t refer to those who have been maimed. One of the things I would like to see, personally, is more of those young people being able to come to Europe, to Britain to have treatment because their injuries are severe and they have not had the treatment that they need at the time of that surgery.
“Their situation is dire, going forward, and we could make it less dire.”
She was backed up by former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell. The Hayes and Harlington independent MP said: “I think this is the ninth occasion I have raised it now. It would be really helpful to have a response from the minister… to see the progress on developing the scheme we’ve been recommended based on the Ukrainian scheme to get children here for treatment.
“There has been a willingness from a number of clinicians here to facilitate that.”
Labour MP for Halesowen Alex Ballinger said a child in Gaza was being killed every 10 minutes, on average.
“Some might justify this as a sad but inevitable result of fighting a terrorist organisation in a densely populated area,” Mr Ballinger said.
It's very clear that Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe
“But whilst Israel has every right to respond to the awful attacks of Hamas on October 7, the disregard for civilian lives and failure to ensure adequate humanitarian access during their response is completely unacceptable.”
Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said: “It’s very clear that Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. On November 12 the warning from the Famine Review Committee marked a terrible new milestone, famine is now imminent in areas of northern Gaza. Starvation, malnutrition and related death in these areas are rising fast, as is the risk of disease.”
She added: “Now, northern Gaza has no fully functioning hospitals. The sick and injured must be allowed to leave Gaza to receive care.”
Ms Dodds said that aid going into Gaza is at its lowest level during the conflict, with winter approaching.
“Israel must make good on its commitment to flood Gaza with aid,” she said. “The UN and its agencies must be able to fulfil that mandate.”
