Gaza and Sudan: Foreign Secretary statement, 18 November 2025
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-18)

The Foreign Secretary made a statement to the House of Commons on the situations in Gaza and Sudan on 18 November 2025.

Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to update the House on two of the world’s gravest conflicts – in Gaza and in Sudan - following recent resolutions in the United Nations and discussions at the G7, and also on the action that the UK Government is taking to pursue peace.

Firstly in Gaza. After two years of the most horrendous suffering in Gaza, the ceasefire agreement led by President Trump with the support of Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye has been in place for 6 weeks.

Twenty hostages are now home with their loved ones, and the remains of 25 more have been returned so their families can grieve. More aid trucks are entering Gaza, but the ceasefire is highly fragile. And there is still a long journey ahead implement the commitments made at Sharm el Sheikh and to get to a lasting peace.

Last night, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803. The UK voted for this important resolution, which authorises the establishment of an International Stabilisation Force for Gaza, transitional arrangements including the Board of Peace and a Palestinian Committee.

It underscores the essential need for humanitarian aid and reconstruction, and points the way to a path to Palestinian self-determination and statehood. Crucially, it is supported by the Palestinian Authority and Arab and Muslim partners in the region and beyond. And this resolution is a critical staging post which sustains the unity around President Trump’s 20-Point plan. But momentum must now be maintained.

It is essential that an International Stabilisation Force and trained Palestinian police can be deployed quickly to support the ceasefire and to avoid a vacuum being left which Hamas can exploit. We will also need the urgent formation of a Palestinian Committee, alongside the Board of Peace. And as we were clear at the UN last night, these transitional arrangements must be implemented in accordance with international law and respecting Palestinian sovereignty and self-determination.

They should strengthen the unity of Gaza and the West Bank, and empower Palestinian institutions to enable a reformed Palestinian Authority to resume governance in Gaza, because Palestine must be run by Palestinians.

The work to implement the first phase of the ceasefire agreement must continue. That means work so that Hamas releases the bodies of the remaining three hostages taken in the terrorist attack on October 7th, so their families can properly grieve.

And we urgently need a major increase in humanitarian aid because aid into Gaza is still a trickle rather than a flood. In Jordan, two weeks ago I visited warehouses holding UKAid for Gaza – including one run by the World Food Programme with enough wheat to feed 700,000 people for a month. Yet it still sits there because the Jordanian route into Gaza is still closed.

They told me there about there being 30 more warehouses nearby, with food, shelter kits, tents, medical supplies - less than 100 miles from Gaza but still not getting in. Now I welcome very recent improvements in aid flows and that one more border crossing – Zikim – is now partially open. But it is not nearly enough.

We need all of the land crossings open – including the Rafah border with Egypt - with longer and consistent hours. Urgent work is needed immediately in all parts of Gaza to rebuild basic public services and to provide shelter as winter draws in. Medical staff must be allowed to enter and leave Gaza freely and international non-governmental organisations need certainty that they can continue to operate.

I spoke to the King of Jordan, and to doctors in Amman about a maternity and neonatal field hospital unit which stands ready to be moved into Gaza. But again, they can’t yet get it in. The Israeli Government can and must remove these restrictions and uncertainty now.

As well as working with the US and others, we are drawing on distinct UK strengths to support a lasting peace.

We’re providing expertise on weapons decommissioning and ceasefire monitoring, based on Northern Ireland experience. We’re supporting demining and unexploded ordnance – including with £4 million of new UK funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service and funding to surge in experts, including from British organisations such as the Halo Trust and Mines Advisory Group, whose impressive work I’ve recently seen first-hand. And on civil-military coordination, we have UK deployments into a dedicated US-led hub for Gaza stabilization efforts.

But beyond Gaza, stability in the West Bank is essential to any sustainable peace. I am concerned that the Palestinian Authority faces an economic crisis, induced by Israeli restrictions that are strangling the Palestinian economy.

The Netanyahu government should be extending, not threatening to end, the arrangements between Israeli and Palestinian banks - arrangements that are crucial to the everyday economy for Palestinians, it is crucial for stability – which is in Israel’s interest too.

The pace of illegal settlement building continues. We have seen further appalling incidents of settler violence during the olive harvest. While I welcome Israeli President Herzog’s expression of concern, the response of the Israeli authorities is insufficient, practically and legally.

Tackling settlement expansion and settler violence are vital to protecting a two-state solution - in line with the UK’s historic decision to recognise the State of Palestine.

Madam Deputy Speaker, let me turn now to Sudan where the worst humanitarian crisis in the 21st century is still unfolding right now.

The UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, who has just visited the area, has described it as ‘the epicentre of suffering in the world’ – and he is right. Over 30 million people need lifesaving aid. Twelve million have been forced from their homes. Famine is spreading. cholera and preventable disease are rampant.

And in El Fasher, following the advances by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), horrifying scenes of atrocities, with mass executions, starvation, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war. Horrors so appalling they can be seen from space.

As the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have put it, El Fasher is a crime scene. There are satellite pictures show discolouration of sand, consistent with pools of blood. Multiple clusters of objects consistent with piles of human bodies, and the apparent burning of bodies and operations to dispose of bodies in mass graves.

Further horrors will yet unfold unless greater action is taken. A year ago, Britain tabled a resolution at the UN Security Council demanding humanitarian access and civilian protection. But it was shamefully vetoed at that time by Russia. Six months ago, at our London Sudan conference, the UK brought international partners and secured £800 million in funding. But the situation continues to deteriorate, including with North Kordofan now under threat and fighting moving to El Obeid.

We need a complete step change in efforts to alleviate the suffering and bring about peace. That means more aid to those in need. The UK has committed over £125 million this year alone - delivering lifesaving support to over 650,000 people, treating children with severe malnutrition, providing water and medicine, and supporting survivors of rape.

The challenge is still access. The RSF still refuses safe passage to aid organisations around El Fasher. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is bringing in new restrictions which stand to hinder aid. Both sides must allow unhindered passage for humanitarian workers, supplies, and for trapped civilians.

We are urgently pressing for a three-month humanitarian truce to open routes for life-saving supplies. But aid will not resolve a conflict wilfully driven by warring parties. So, we desperately need a lasting ceasefire underpinned by serious political process.

At the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain two weeks ago, I called for the same intense international efforts to address the crisis in Sudan as we have seen around Gaza.

At Niagara last week, I joined our G7 partners in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the unimpeded access of humanitarian aid and for external actors to contribute to the restoration of peace and security.

We are engaging intensively with the ‘Quad’ countries, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States who have now together called for an immediate humanitarian truce and an end to external support and arms that are fuelling conflict. And I strongly support Secretary Rubio’s latest comments regarding the need to end the weapons and support that the RSF is getting from outside Sudan.

And last Friday, the UK called a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in which a UK-drafted resolution was passed securing an international consensus for an urgent UN inquiry into alleged crimes in El-Fasher. Because impunity cannot be the outcome of these horrifying events.

We need to make sure that teams can get in to investigate these atrocities and hold the perpetrators to account. And I have instructed my officials to bring forward potential sanctions relating to human rights violations and abuses in Sudan. Madam Deputy Speaker, the UK will play its full part to ensure that it is the Sudanese people, not any warring party, that determine Sudan’s future.

Wars that rage unresolved do not just cause untold harm to civilians, they radiate instability. They undermine the security of neighbouring states. They lead migrants to embark on dangerous journeys.

So we are striving to meet those urgent humanitarian needs, striving to secure not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of lasting peace. And from Gaza to Sudan, that can only be done through international cooperation and through countries coming together for peace.

I commend this statement to the House.