Palestinians in Gaza, squeezed into ever-shrinking territory, served by less than half the aid trucks promised in a ceasefire agreement, are calling on the British government to do more to protect them.
Their calls come after Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that he had ordered the Israeli army to seize control of 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, his defence minister, Israel Katz, said there were plans for the large-scale migration of Palestinians from Gaza “at the right time and in the right manner”.
Both moves – the army’s push westwards and the ethnic cleansing of the enclave – are clear violations of the US-brokered ceasefire agreed in October 2025.
But Palestinians who spoke with Declassified said the ceasefire has only ever been one in name. The Israeli army, they said, has already expanded its control well beyond the so-called “yellow line”, the agreed truce line dividing Gaza. Eight months since the ceasefire was announced, more than 900 people have been killed and nearly 2,800 injured, including many who were in close proximity to the line. ‘Turning a blind eye’ Amena Abu Saif, 30, was carrying her 10-month-old baby when an Israeli sniper fired at her from inside the yellow line and shot straight through her abdomen.
She and her family were displaced from their home by the war. They were living in a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Jabalia refugee camp, about 250 metres away from the line, when she was hit.
She has watched as diplomatic efforts to bring fighting to an end have stalled. One major sticking point has been the call for Hamas to disarm.
Abu Saif said conditioning the progress of the talks on the disarmament of Hamas, a position which the UK and other countries have supported, is out of touch with reality on the ground. Amena Abu Saif lays on a stretcher after she was shot near the yellow line (Photo: Shaimaa Marwan) “They demand that we abide by the agreement, while the bullet that struck me as I carried my baby in my arms is not counted among Israel’s violations or its evasion of commitment to the agreement,” she said.
“If Hamas and the resistance factions hand over their weapons, will Israel stop killing and displacing us? Certainly not. My child and I were not carrying weapons. We were civilians and completely defenceless.”
She added: “We want a clear position that stops these violations, not just political statements that blame one side while turning a blind eye to Israel. People here are dying while the world limits itself to statements,” she said. Lack of urgency Her calls are similar to those made by MPs in recent weeks who have demanded that the British government pull more levers as the situation in Gaza deteriorates even further.
Speaking in parliament late last month, Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said the government supported Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, the first phase of which was the ceasefire.
But the full promise of it, he said, “has yet to be fully realised”. Conditions in Gaza are “dire”, he acknowledged, with children “living amid sewage, parasites and disease”. He called for Hamas to agree to disarm and decommission their weapons and for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza. MPs questioned how this could happen absent further action, like the UK sanctions put on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich a year ago this month.
“It is nearly one year since the sanctions . . . and what have we seen in that year?” said Ellie Chowns, Green MP for North Herefordshire. “Ongoing horror in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Lebanon.”
“When will the government stop repeatedly hesitating and take action?”
Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, said: “How will we make the current Israeli Government understand . . . that we mean business if the minister keeps coming to the house to tell us that he will not hesitate, but hesitates to set out what he is actually going to do in response to these incidents?”
On Monday, Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, told a gathering in parliament that the UK government had let Palestinians down. Trump called his peace plan for Gaza “a great victory” and then walked away, she said.
“Out of the news means out of the mind. But the Gazans are not going anywhere and yet where is the progress? It is completely intolerable yet we tolerate it,” Thornberry said.
“Where are the international summits? Where is the urgency? Where is the sustained diplomatic effort?” RELATED Nobody wants to live next to a war criminal On 19 April, a few days before Hala’s wedding, an Israeli sniper shot a bullet through the window of their family’s home in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. It lodged in the 17-year-old’s head.
Darwish said she and her family are afraid to return home after the incident, and questions how effective mediators have been in restraining Israel and ensuring its commitment to the ceasefire terms.
Discussions about peace processes and disarmament seem completely detached from what she has witnessed, especially given the ongoing violations Palestinian civilians continue to endure.
“This approach, supported by Britain and the Western community, does not reflect what we are living through,” she said. “We are still living days that resemble nightmares under bombardment and fear, while one side is being asked to make concessions at a time when the violations have not stopped.” Building on ruins Ahmad Elyan, who lost his home in Jabalia refugee camp, is waiting for Israel to follow through on the terms of the agreement so he can return and build a tent on the ruins of his house. Until now, he has not been able to return because it falls within the yellow zone.
“Anyone who tries to approach the area where our homes are located is immediately shot and killed,” he said. Elyan said he feels that Israel takes whatever it wants from the agreement while refusing to fulfill its obligations, amid silence from the mediators and the countries sponsoring the agreement, including the UK.
Their focus to end the conflict, he said, seems to be only the disarmament of Hamas. “We have not heard any statement from Britain regarding Israel’s ongoing violations,” he said.
“Where are the allied countries, and Britain in particular, regarding these violations, especially since it is among the countries currently seeking disarmament?”
He added: “My children ask me every day: when will we return to Jabalia refugee camp? When will we at least be able to pitch a tent in the place where our destroyed home once stood?”
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