EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: The suffering in Gaza will leave a dark stain on humanity

We hear that these rules and laws must be upheld, repeated forcefully by world leaders and Governments, but as suffering and death continues, their meaning and relevance is becoming diluted.

That is dangerous for all of us.

Hamas are a terrorist organisation, they killed 1,200 people on the 7th October, tortured others and have continued to hold over 100 hostage. It is terrifying to think what these hostages are going through in captivity.

Since then, over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 72,000 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza, over 12,000 of these are children. This has been in just under five months. Of the children remaining many are injured, in pain without medicine, starving to death.

This is happening before our very eyes.

Almost 200 humanitarians including 175 United Nations staff have been killed, with each death the provision of further humanitarian assistance is weakened.

This week an Israeli strike has killed seven World Central Kitchen Workers, three of them Britons.

Over 100 Journalists have been killed.

These people were not terrorists. Their only aim was to alleviate suffering and let the world know what is happening.

They were civilians. Someone’s mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, partner, someone’s child.

I am not an expert in international humanitarian law, but I know what I see and hear daily from experts on some of our most trusted news programmes and publications.

Wars and the suffering they bring is sadly not new, but the scale of those killed and the suffering in Gaza will leave a dark stain on humanity.

I feel a desperate hopelessness that the international community has been unable to negotiate a lasting ceasefire and that as I write this there will be no let up to the relentless pain and suffering of those innocent lives caught up in this war.

But as an MP I have a voice that others don’t.

I promise I will continue to use mine.