Send British troops to Gaza to stop the IDF, urges Labour MP

But Lammy had started his Middle East update with an account of the recent violence against the Druze minority in Syria.

He said that the government was “horrified” by the reports of civilian deaths and that he’d spoken directly to Syria’s foreign minister telling him: “We want to see the fighting ended, civilians protected, and the rights of all Syrians upheld. The violence in Sweida must be investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable.”

Recent weeks have seen violent clashes between the Druze and local Bedouin tribes, which left over 1,000 dead after internal security forces were accused of siding with the Bedouin.

Last week, Israel struck the Syrian Defence Ministry in Damascus and Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the country was “working to save our Druze brothers" from allegedly state-backed atrocities.

Yet, despite the escalation in Syria in recent days, only two MPs raised the plight of the country’s Druze community.

Conservative former defence minister Andrew Murrison asked whether Lammy had spoken to his Israeli counterpart “since the only country that has visibly come to the assistance of the Druze, for all the criticism that has been rightly aimed at it, is Israel”.

And Democratic Unionist Party MP Jim Shannon told the Commons: “The latest reports of attacks on the Druze people indicate that hundreds of Druze civilians, including women and children, have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, executed and mutilated, with Christians suffering at their side.

“Despite the fact that they are fighting back, there is a real and valid fear of genocide of those people, who have a strong faith and, as such, are worthy of our protection. What can the government and the foreign secretary do to secure peace and hope for those people, who are currently being targeted and need aid urgently?”

Lammy responded that he was grateful to Shannon “for naming the Druze, who have seen awful atrocities visited on them in the last few days, and the positions of minorities in Syria” and said that he had “raised these issues with the Syrian leader myself, urged him to act and said that there must be accountability as he grips the entirety of his country”.

However, in the near two-hours of parliamentary time during the statement and debate that followed, the overwhelming focus of MPs was on Gaza, with many ramping up their rhetoric.

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse suggested that Lammy personally “may end up at The Hague [referring to the International Court of Justice] because of his inaction” to protect Palestinians in Gaza. The foreign secretary hit back that Malthouse, who served as education secretary under Liz Truss, “demeans his argument when he personalises it in the way that he does”.

Elsewhere, the SNP’s Westiminster leader, Stephen Flynn, criticised Lammy for not calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “a genocide”, as well as for the government’s refusal “to end all arms sales to Israel and, of course, he continues to refuse to recognise a state of Palestine”.

The government says it will recognise a Palestinian state as part of a long-term peace process resulting in a two-state solution.

Several Labour MPs also demanded the government take tougher actions against Israel.

Ilford South MP Jas Athwal urged Lammy to “to enforce further sanctions” against Netanyahu’s government, while Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles said “This is not just a genocide; it is now ethnic cleansing” and Glasgow West MP Patricia Ferguson claimed that “it really does begin to look as though there is genocide unfolding before our eyes.”

"I realise that the foreign secretary will want to take a legalistic view of that, but to those of us looking at it from a moral and logical point of view, there can be no other words for it," she concluded.

Israel has consistently denied allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the UK government maintains that any ruling on those matters is for the international courts, rather than Parliament.