PM to hold crunch Cabinet meeting to discuss Gaza as aid drops begin ahead of UK-led peace plan reveal
by Chay Quinn · LBCBy Chay Quinn
The Prime Minister will hold a crunch Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza as malnutrition grips the strip following an Israeli embargo preventing aid entering the territory.
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Sir Keir Starmer and his senior ministers will convene at 2pm according to reports, as Britain works with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance.
British military planners have been deployed for further support in the strip.
The situation in Gaza has become increasingly desperate in recent days as dwindling food supplies has threatened to lead to mass starvation.
Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said there have been six deaths due to malnutrition in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
59,921 people have been killed in Gaza since beginning of the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It began after Hamas killed 1,139 Israelis on October 7, 2023 and took more than 200 people captive.
The meeting comes after Sir Keir's spokesperson confirmed that a UK-led plan to bring peace to the Middle East, will be presented to US President Donald Trump and other allies in coming days.
The plan, forged alongside France and Germany, was confirmed by Downing Street on Monday.
The PM's spokesperson said: "From the readout that you've seen from the call that he had with Chancellor Merz and President Macron, you will see that they agreed to work closely together on a plan.
"It builds on the collaboration to date that paves the way to a long-term solution on security in the region. As I've said, the Prime Minister will be presenting that plan to other key allies, including the USA and Arab states, over the coming days, and indeed convening Cabinet this week.
"You can expect to see more coming out of that."
The Prime Minister is also mindful of the "wider context of the human suffering in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages, which must also be prioritised if we want to see a sustainable and lasting peace in the region", the spokesman said.
Jordan and the UAE dropped "25 tonnes of food aid and essential humanitarian supplies" into Gaza in a joint operation on Sunday, according to Jordanian state TV.
Jordan's security agency posted a video to X on Sunday showing aid trucks driving along a road.
“Happening now, huge Jordanian relief convoys are moving towards Gaza,” the Public Security Directorate wrote on X.
Some Egyptian trucks have already crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
Despite the aid drops and Israel declaring daily 'humanitarian pauses' to facilitate aid deliveries, 100 Palestinians died across the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Israel said it would establish humanitarian corridors to enable UN convoys to transport aid into Gaza, as well as airdrops.
In a statement, the country's military said it would allow "safe movement of deliveries of food and medicine" but that the military "emphasises that combat operations have not ceased".
The aid pauses see Israel’s military suspending operations every day between the hours of 10am and 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza including Gaza City, Al-Mawasi and Deir el-Balah, as the IDF promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to allow food and medical supplies to enter the enclave.
The move comes amid international condemnation of the starvation crisis in Gaza, but Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures.
But within hours of the ‘humanitarian pause’ taking effect, air raids resumed, killing 63 Palestinians including a newborn who was delivered in a complex surgery after his mother, who was seven months pregnant, was killed in an airstrike according to Nasser hospital.
Bombs fell in multiple locations across Gaza, local health officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes.
Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies.
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire, Donald Trump said Israel has the responsibility to ensure a flow of aid into Gaza, but added that they are "hampered" by the remaining 20 hostages still being held by Hamas.
The US President on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza "terrible".
Sitting next to Trump during the 70-minute press conference, Starmer stressed the need "to get the hostages out" before adding the situation on the ground in Gaza is "absolutely intolerable" and that humanitarian aid needs to get in "at speed and at volume".
He also said the British population is "revolted" by the scenes emerging from Gaza, and that the UK and the US can do "our very best to alleviate" the situation.
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war.
In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Hamas had been freeing hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a ceasefire that lasted around two months, which Israel broke when it launched surprise airstrikes on Gaza on 18 March.
Israel partially lifted its strict aid restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new US-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence, with daily reports of Palestinians being shot while queuing for aid.
Traditional aid providers have also encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries.
Most of Gaza's population now relies on aid, and accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for.
The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed on Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pregnant woman and her child were killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, according to a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Another strike hit a two-storey house in the western Japanese neighbourhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties.
At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to local hospitals.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes.
It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person.
In its October 7 2023 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half of whom Israel believes to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry operates under the Hamas government, but is seen by the UN and other international organisations as the most reliable source of data on casualties.