A year on from the attacks on 7th October, Sir Keir Starmer released a statement to mark ‘the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust’ and urged the country ‘to remember the lives so cruelly taken’.
On October 7th 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel left almost 1,200 people dead and a further 251 people were taken hostage. In his statement, Sir Keir stated that the ‘collective grief has not diminished or waned’ one year on.
‘Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas. Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families’, the statement reads.
‘Agonising reports of rape, torture and brutality beyond comprehension which continued to emerge days and weeks later’.
He describes how ‘meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable’ and praised ‘their strength and determination to cherish the memories of those they had lost’.
‘I stand firm in our commitment to bring the hostages home, and we will not give up until they are returned’.
He outlined one such example in his speech delivered to the House of Commons the day after the release of his statement, in which he spoke of Mandy Damari, whose daughter Emily ‘sent a desperate, unfinished message as Hamas attacked her Kibbutz’ and ‘is still held captive today’.
Addressing the outbreak in violence following the October 7 attacks, the PM said ‘we must also not look the other way as civilians bear the ongoing dire consequences of this conflict in the Middle East’.
Starmer finished his statement by calling for an end to the conflict in the region, where retaliation by Israel’s military ‘to destroy Hamas’ in Gaza has left over 40,000 Palestinians dead.
‘I reiterate my call for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza’.
‘I reiterate my call for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza’.
‘We will not falter in our pursuit of peace and on this day of pain and sorrow, we honour those we lost, and continue in our determination to return those still held hostage, help those who are suffering, and secure a better future for the Middle East’.
