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LONDON: A group of nearly 60 British Labour politicians have called on the UK government to immediately recognize a Palestinian state, following alarming developments in Gaza and controversial remarks from Israel’s defense minister, .

In a letter sent to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Thursday, the cross-section of MPs, spanning both centrist and left-wing factions, accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and demanded urgent action to prevent the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians to a camp in the ruins of Rafah.

“It is with great urgency and concern that we are writing to you regarding the Israeli defense minister’s announcement on Monday of his plans to forcibly transfer all Palestinian civilians in Gaza to a camp in the ruined city of Rafah without allowing them to leave,” the MPs wrote.

Citing a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, they continued: “The defense minister’s plans have been described by a leading Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, as ‘an operational plan for crimes against humanity. It’s about population transfer to the southern tip of Gaza in preparation for deportation outside the strip.’

“Though an accurate description, we believe there is a clearer one. The ethnic cleansing of Gaza,” they added.

The letter, organized by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, was signed by 59 MPs, including group co-chairs Sarah Owen and Andrew Pakes, as well as Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade select committee.

Other prominent signatories include Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Stella Creasy, Clive Lewis, Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler.

The MPs outlined five key demands to ministers, some of which are in line with existing UK policy, such as continued funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency and efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

However, other recommendations are likely to stir political debate.

These include imposing a trade blockade on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and granting immediate recognition to Palestine as a sovereign state.

“By not recognizing (Palestine) as a state, we undermine our own policy of a two-state solution and set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory,” the MPs warned.

The UK government has previously indicated that it supports recognition of a Palestinian state “at the point of maximum impact,” as part of a broader peace process in coordination with international allies.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office reiterated this position: “We are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state and to doing so when (it) will have most impact in support of a peace process.”

The Labour MPs’ intervention comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron issued a similar call during his state visit to the UK.

Speaking alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Macron stressed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and momentum toward recognition.

“Calling today for a ceasefire in Gaza without any condition is telling the rest of the world that for us as Europeans, there is no double standard. As we are attached to human lives, as we are attached to territorial integrity, we want the ceasefire, no discussion,” Macron said.

“Today, working together in order to recognize the state of Palestine and to initiate this political momentum is the only path to peace,” he added.

This is the second letter sent by Labour MPs in recent weeks calling for immediate recognition of Palestine, but the first time the signatories have made their names public. A previous letter also included some parliamentary aides and junior ministers.

DHAKA: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at heightened risk of losing access to essential services, the UN refugee agency has warned as it struggles to secure adequate funding.

Bangladesh hosts more than 1.3 million Rohingya on its southeast coast, who are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar — the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Nearly 150,000 of them have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State over the past 18 months in what has become the largest influx since 2017, when some 750,000 Rohingya crossed to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which the UN has been referring to as a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.

“With the acute global funding crisis, the critical needs of both newly arrived refugees and those already present will be unmet, and essential services for the whole Rohingya refugee population are at risk of collapsing,” the UNHCR said in a statement issued on Friday.

Only 35 percent of UNHCR’s $255 million appeal for the Rohingya has been funded.

Unless the agency secures additional funds, health services for the Rohingya population in Bangladesh will be “severely disrupted by September and essential cooking fuel, or LPG, will run out. By December, food assistance will stop.”

Severe aid cuts from major donors, such as the US under President Donald Trump and other Western countries, have had a major impact on the humanitarian sector.

The education of Rohingya children has already been impacted, as the UN’s children agency UNICEF was forced to suspend thousands of learning centers in Cox’s Bazar last month, worsening an education crisis for about 437,000 school-age children in the camps.

“The funding crisis for the Rohingyas is in a very dire state now. The health sector is next, as it is hit hard by the fund crunch. Many of the health centers have suspended their services that severely impacted thousands of pregnant women, lactating mothers, newborn babies and children,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Saturday.

Bangladesh has not been able to arrange new shelters for the newly arrived Rohingya, with most of them now living with relatives who arrived earlier, he added.

“Site management, which covers the water and sanitation issues, is also reeling. Shelter management is facing a bad situation,” Rahman said.

“The ongoing crisis may force the Rohingyas to complete desperation.”