“These children would be laid on the floor, limp and lifeless, and we would declare them dead immediately. The ones who we do not declare dead would be fighting for one of the few intensive care beds that were available, in a hospital that did not have a paediatric intensive care unit, and whose adult intensive care unit was almost completely filled with injured and maimed children. This was last year. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow. This must be the worst it could possibly get. Something is going to change. We’re two months away from the ICJ ruling on plausible genocide, with provisional measures. Something will change”—and it hasn’t. It is a frightening reality to go back one year later, to see some of the most horrific crimes being committed in front of our eyes, to know that Aleen, the seven-month-old niece of one of my colleagues, who was brought to the intensive care unit, is now the only survivor of her family, with eyelashes that are burned, hair that is burned and skin that reeks of the weapons provided by western nations, including the United Kingdom, and to know that, after a year of what I thought would be the absolute worst this could possibly get, it has only got worse.”
General Summary
The UK Foreign Affairs Committee heard evidence from humanitarian and medical professionals on Gaza and the West Bank. Witnesses described systematic destruction of healthcare, mass displacement, food insecurity, and deliberate obstruction of aid. Hospitals and schools have been targeted, leaving civilians—particularly children and women—without essential services. Testimonies highlighted ongoing atrocities, possible genocide, and the urgent need for international accountability, aid access, and UK pressure on Israel to uphold humanitarian obligations.
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Testimonies Summary
Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan
Dr. Haj-Hassan detailed Gaza’s healthcare collapse, describing destroyed hospitals, besieged facilities, and critically ill children dying for lack of intensive care. She recounted harrowing cases of malnourished, amputated, and orphaned children, linking attacks on health infrastructure to ethnic cleansing. She emphasized targeted killings of healthcare workers and called the situation genocidal.
Anna Halford
Halford described MSF’s operations under siege, working with limited supplies in collapsing hospitals. She said deliberate infrastructure destruction and arbitrary aid restrictions created a humanitarian catastrophe. The new Israeli “distribution system” was called “lethal chaos,” exposing civilians to danger while blocking essential goods. She stressed aid access, forward planning, and accountability.
Shaina Low
Low emphasized Gaza’s massive shelter crisis, with over a million needing tents and materials blocked at borders. She described women’s vulnerability, repeated displacement, and risks of exploitation. In the West Bank, settler violence and demolitions have surged. She urged the UK to pressure Israel, secure aid entry, and protect Palestinian communities.
Rohan Talbot
Talbot described unprecedented violence in Gaza and the West Bank, including mass displacement, systematic hospital destruction, and daily killings. He rejected Israeli claims about militants in hospitals, citing independent reports disproving them. He urged UK countermeasures: an arms embargo, accountability mechanisms, and enforcement of ICJ rulings, stressing that impunity fuels ongoing atrocities.
For full transcription see:
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/16097/pdf/