Council has defended new guidelines, saying claims they would lead to ‘two-tier justice’ were ‘completely wrong’

The Israeli government has been told that it has obligations under international humanitarian law to allow free and unimpeded access to aid to Gaza, a Foreign Office minister has said.

As PA Media reports, Hamish Falconer told the foreign affairs committee this morning that “limited progress” had been made in urging the Israeli government to lift “far-reaching” restrictions in order to help people deal with colder conditions in winter.

The nature of the dual-use restrictions that Israel has imposed have been so far-reaching as to make … providing the aid required to help people respond to the colder conditions of winter very, very difficult indeed.

It was a question very much on our minds as winter came in Gaza, and it was an issue on which we made limited progress.

I don’t want to live in a world where ministers are deciding any individual sentence, to be clear. But overall policy, the balance between rights, the values that we have in society, is the domain of elected politicians.

And frankly, I want if it needs legislation, then we will support that. But it should never have got to this.