Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed the UK is deploying military planners to Jordan to coordinate aid drops into Gaza, as mounting pressure from MPs and international allies intensifies calls for Britain to formally recognise Palestinian statehood.
The Prime Minister announced on Saturday that a small team of British military planners and logisticians is being made available to help Jordan deliver humanitarian supplies by air, following Israel’s belated decision to allow foreign countries to conduct airdrops into the besieged enclave.
Writing in The Mirror, Sir Keir declared: “News that Israel will allow countries to airdrop aid into Gaza has come far too late – but we will do everything we can to get aid in via this route.” The announcement comes as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza deepens, with the World Food Programme warning that almost one in three people are going for days without eating.
Cross-Party Pressure Mounts
In an unprecedented show of parliamentary unity, 220 MPs from nine political parties signed a joint letter urging the government to recognise Palestinian statehood at next week’s UN meeting. More than half the signatories – 131 MPs – are from Sir Keir’s own Labour Party, placing significant pressure on the Prime Minister to follow France’s lead.
French President Emmanuel Macron committed on Friday to formally recognising Palestinian sovereignty at the UN General Assembly in September, joining Spain, Ireland and Mexico in recent diplomatic moves. The international push for recognition has gained significant momentum, with 81 countries having recognised Palestine since 1988.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who coordinated the letter, warned that “the clock is really ticking” on the international community’s ability to recognise Palestinian statehood. “We really need to do it while there is the possibility of there being a state of Palestine… and that is not going to be there for much longer,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Deadly History of Aid Drops
The UK’s renewed involvement in airdrops comes despite a deadly track record that has claimed civilian lives. Five people were killed and several injured after a parachute landing a humanitarian airdrop failed to open, bringing a pallet crashing down into a crowd of people waiting for food north of Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp in March 2024.
In a separate incident later that month, at least 12 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off Gaza’s northern coast on Monday while trying to retrieve airdropped humanitarian aid. Witnesses reported that those who drowned “don’t know how to swim” and were caught in strong currents when parcels fell into the sea.
Champion described aid drops as “largely symbolic”, warning of scenes of “grotesque hunger games” when supplies are delivered from the air. “It’s survival of the fittest when these are dropped… what we need is Israel to make the decision to open every single border so that aid floods. That is the only way to stop this man-made famine,” she said.
International Coordination
Following emergency talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday, Downing Street confirmed the three leaders had agreed that “robust plans” were required to turn an “urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace”. The leaders urged Israel to lift all restrictions on aid entering Gaza.
In a readout of the call, Number 10 said the leaders had agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace”. The statement also confirmed the UK would be working with Jordan to evacuate children requiring medical assistance.
However, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency warned airdrops were “a distraction and a smokescreen” that would fail to reverse deepening starvation in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, stated: “Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians.”
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
The UN has described Israel’s decision to allow airdrops as a “distraction to inaction” by the Israeli government. Its food aid programme warned that almost one in three people in Gaza are going for days without eating, with malnutrition surging and 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment.
Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the Palestinian territory, has repeatedly said that there is no siege and blames Hamas for cases of malnutrition. However, international aid agencies and human rights groups have warned that Israel is “using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza, which is a war crime.
A senior Jordanian official told the BBC that its military was yet to receive permission from Israel to conduct the airdrops, despite Israeli media reports that the United Arab Emirates and Jordan would carry out the latest drops.
Previous British Involvement
The UK has been involved in previous efforts to airdrop aid into Gaza. The previous Conservative government struck a deal with Jordan to deliver aid by air in 2024, with tonnes of supplies including medicines, food and fuel dropped into northern Gaza by parachute from Jordanian Air Force planes.
The Royal Air Force subsequently conducted direct airdrops, delivering over 100 tonnes of food over the course of 11 flights between March and May 2024, according to government figures.
Medical Evacuations
Sir Keir also announced that the UK was “urgently accelerating efforts” to evacuate children who need critical medical assistance to the UK for treatment. Since the outbreak of war in Gaza, two children with serious health conditions have been brought to the UK for private medical treatment, arriving in May from Egypt with the assistance of Project Pure Hope, a humanitarian healthcare initiative.
Opposition Views
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has referred to plans to recognise a Palestinian state as a “prize for terror” following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. The Israeli position remains firmly opposed to international recognition of Palestinian statehood outside of a negotiated settlement.
US President Donald Trump, who arrived in Scotland on Friday for a visit ahead of meeting Sir Keir on Monday, dismissed France’s announcement on Palestinian statehood, claiming it “doesn’t matter. The comment highlights the diplomatic challenges facing the UK government as it attempts to balance relationships with both European allies and the United States.
Parliamentary Support
The letter to Sir Keir was signed by senior Commons figures including Labour select committee chairs Liam Byrne, Dame Emily Thornberry and Ruth Cadbury. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Conservative former minister Kit Malthouse, and Sir Edward Leigh – Parliament’s longest-serving MP – also added their signatures.
Sir Keir has maintained that recognising Palestine would have to be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution”, stating: “Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to deepen, with reports of over 59,600 Palestinians killed since October 2023, the pressure on the British government to take decisive action continues to mount from both domestic parliamentarians and international allies.
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Image Credit:
U.S. Air Force airdrops humanitarian aid to Gaza – Image by U.S. Central Command, in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
