Declassified UK: Ceasefire in Gaza

This week, the long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza went into effect.

During the first stage of the ceasefire, which will last 42 days, there will be “a full and complete ceasefire”, Israeli withdrawal from the populated areas of Gaza, and initial hostage exchanges.

There has also been a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, with the United Nations saying that 2,400 aid trucks have been able to enter the strip during the first days of the truce.

In stage two of the ceasefire, the remaining living hostages in Gaza will be exchanged for Palestinian hostages held arbitrarily in Israel’s prisons, and there will be a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The third and final stage of the ceasefire agreement is set to involve the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.

It was during phase one that the final remaining British captive in Gaza, Emily Damari, was released alongside Israeli women Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen.

The other British hostage, Nadav Popplewell, died in June last year during Israeli military operations in Gaza.

It was hard to ignore how the hostages released by Hamas looked in better condition than the Palestinian captives released by Israel.

Emily Damari’s mother, Mandy, noted how she was “in much better health than we expected”, contrasting with the condition of Khalida Jarrar, a former Palestinian political leader, who had aged considerably in solitary confinement and whose hair had turned grey.

The British media was also widely condemned for centering the Israeli hostageswhile ignoring the plight of the Palestinian captives.

“Why does nobody at least give some respect for our blood”, Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza said on Sky News. “The thousands of people, not just dozens of Israeli prisoners, the thousands of lives of Palestinians who now nobody knows where they are”.

Azaiza was flanked on Sky News by renowned British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, who declared: “Your channel refers to Palestinians as prisoners – even the children arrested without trial – and the Israelis as hostages”.

This, he said, was a “racialised othering of Palestinians [which] allowed this genocide to take place”.

Britain’s Gaza policy exposed

The release of Damari following diplomatic negotiations, in contrast to Popplewell’s death during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, can be seen as a damning indictment of British foreign policy in the Middle East.

At the end of October 2023, Starmer, then leader of the opposition, joined the ruling Conservative party in arguing fervently against a ceasefire - even as the Israeli government’s genocidal intentions were being made clear.

“While I understand calls for a ceasefire at this stage, I do not believe that it is the correct position now”, Starmer told Chatham House.

“A ceasefire always freezes any conflict in the state where it currently lies, and as we speak that would leave Hamas with the infrastructure and the capability to carry out the sort of attack we saw on October 7”, Starmer continued.

“Our current calls for pauses in the fighting… is at this moment the only credible approach that has any chance of achieving what we all want to see in Gaza: the urgent alleviation of Palestinian suffering, aid distributed quickly, space to get hostages out”, he added.

Stamer’s refusal to back a ceasefire during the early stages of the conflict has achieved precisely the opposite of what he claimed to support.

It led to immeasurable Palestinian suffering, the blockage of humanitarian aid into Gaza (which Starmer’s own government now acknowledges is a violation of International Humanitarian Law), and failed to secure the release of most of the hostages.

And sixteen months later, Hamas retains its military potential, with former US secretary of state Antony Blinken even acknowledging that “Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost”.

In other words, Labour’s approach to events in Gaza has been an abject failure on its own terms. But perhaps this is investing too much faith in Starmer’s own words.

Nobody can claim they did not know Israel’s goal following 7 October was genocidal vengeance – and the Labour party, by and large, willingly provided Netanyahu with the military, intelligence, and diplomatic support to carry this out.

Starmer’s phone call with Netanyahu

This week, Starmer also held a phone call with Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to the UK government’s press release, Starmer offered support for “the hard-fought and long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas”, and extended his personal thanks for the release of the hostages.

Both leaders also agreed to continue the “close co-operation on defence and security matters in support of wider stability in the region – particularly in the face of the ongoing threat posed by Iran”.

This would seem like a rather serious pledge to offer a foreign official wanted by the world’s highest court – yet Starmer seemingly went even further.

According to Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli prime minister “raised the issue of the weapons export licences… that have been frozen in the UK”, and Starmer “said that an evaluation of the issue [was] being carried out”.

If the ceasefire holds, it may be only a matter of time before the Labour government resumes all arms sales to Israel.

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