My fears for my family trapped in Gaza City, by MP Layla Moran

Earlier this week, British-Palestinian MP Layla Moran was asked on ‘Good Morning Britain’ if she had known in advance about the Hamas attack plan – for which co-host Richard Madeley has now apologised. Here, she reveals how her family’s Gaza home was demolished in a bomb strike, and how they are coping as basic supplies run out

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran was asked by GMB’s Richard Madeley if there had been ‘any word on the street’ ahead of the Hamas attack on Israel (ITV/Good Morning Britain)

I was utterly heartbroken by the destruction of the al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which has claimed an estimated 500 lives and countless more injuries. As I write this, it is still unclear who is responsible for this heinous act, but the Palestinian community in the UK, of which I am a part, is grieving. It seems we are on the precipice of something truly awful.

I absolutely share the grief of the Israeli people and Jewish communities here in the UK and around the world following the horrific events of 7 October. Liberal Democrats unequivocally condemn the attacks by Hamas, as we have always done whenever they or others have chosen this barbarous path. The abduction and degrading of hostages, including women and children, is clearly both shocking and unacceptable. We echo demands for their immediate release and abhor the suggestion they should be used as bargaining chips.

It is deeply saddening that what unites us all as a community are those profound feelings of sorrow and loss. I was honoured to speak at a vigil held in Oxford, organised by the local Jewish community, where we stood shoulder to shoulder as one community, supporting one another at this most difficult time.

I have extended family in Gaza City. Their house was bombed by the IDF, so they went to seek sanctuary in a church. I am afraid to say that they are still there, because they are too old and infirm to leave. They say to me that they have nowhere to go. Food is running out and they have no clean water.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating. Six water wells, three pumping stations, one reservoir and one desalination plant have all been bombed. Water pressure is so low in many hospitals that surgeons cannot sterilise equipment properly. Allowing aid into Gaza via the Rafah crossing is absolutely essential, so that people can access the supplies of basic goods that they desperately need.

The fight is with Hamas, and not the Palestinian people. It is essential that international humanitarian law is complied with. It’s just not right for these vulnerable people, including my family, to be held accountable for what Hamas has done.

I am also incredibly worried for my immediate family living in Jerusalem and Ramallah. In the West Bank, they are living in lockdown. Authorities have stopped people moving between cities and there is increasing violence. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 58 Palestinians have been killed and 1,176 injured there since 7 October. This ongoing conflict is affecting all Palestinian communities: in Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora.

Many people are now asking how we got here, and how we make sure that this never happens again. But the past is prologue. A little of my own family history is relevant here.

My great-grandfather, Wasif Jawhariyyeh, wrote extensive memoirs about Palestinian life under Ottoman and British rule. He described a Jerusalem where different communities lived and thrived, side by side. He celebrated the arrival of the British in 1917 and worked for the Mandate. But he and his family were displaced during what is now known as the Nakba (literally meaning ‘catastrophe’), in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled Palestine. Anglophile though he was, he never forgave the British governments of the time for their role in this.

My grandfather, his son, would tell tales of how as a boy, after the bombing of the King David Hotel by the Irgun, an underground militant right-wing Zionist organisation, in 1946, the family sought sanctuary in the Mount of Temptation in Jericho. They were unsure if they would ever return. Sadly, they never did.

And so my mother grew up as a dispossessed refugee, and often speaks of the mental and physical suffering she felt as a Palestinian unable to return to her homeland. I have never felt closer to that pain.

My fear is that among those even closer to these events, the pain turns to increasing division. The next few days and even weeks are going to be very difficult. But we absolutely must keep an eye on the political horizon, as the only solution is a political one.

We and the peoples of the region badly need to hold on to the possibility of a lasting peace, including a two-state solution. Only this will break the cycle of violence, and deliver the security which both Israelis and Palestinians need and deserve.

To that end, we in Britain need to join with our international partners everywhere, especially in Europe and the US. If we don’t, the horrors we see on our TV screens today will only be repeated, ad infinitum, in the years to come.

Everyone in Israel and Palestine have a fundamental right to live with dignity and freedom from fear. The road may be longer after these events, but if they tell us anything, it is that we must work much harder in pursuit of a fair, sustainable and genuine peace between these two peoples.

Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and the Liberal Democrat shadow foreign secretary and international development spokesperson