Parliament’s Rafah rage

It’s been a while since the Commons has had so much anger in it as it did during the urgent question on Gaza. The anxiety and criticism of Israel in Rafah wasn’t confined to the usual group of opposition MPs, but came from across the House. The anger wasn’t just directed at Israel, but at UK ministers, too, for warning against the incursion and then not appearing to change government policy towards Israel now that it was going ahead.

Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell told the chamber in his opening answer that the UK government’s ‘position has been consistent: we are deeply concerned about the prospect of a military incursion, given the number of civilians that are sheltering there and the importance of that entry point’. He added that ‘as yet, we have not seen a credible plan to protect civilians’.

It was these two lines that MPs from across the House repeatedly picked up on in their own questions.