Dutch MPs to return from recess for urgent Gaza debate

Dutch MPs will return from their summer recess next week to debate the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, after a majority backed a proposal from the SP.

The request for an emergency debate was supported by GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, the VVD, CDA and ChristenUnie. A similar motion put forward last week by GroenLinks-PvdA and D66 was rejected at the time.

SP MP Sarah Dobbe, who submitted the latest request, said the deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian enclave could not wait until after the recess. “Given the urgent situation in Gaza, this cannot be postponed,” she said.

A date and time for the debate will be announced later but it will be after the European parliament has decided whether to take any action against Israel, party officials have agreed.

On Monday the Netherlands’ said it would impose entry bans on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said the entry bans – regarded as largely symbolic – were a response to the “intolerable and indefensible” situation in Gaza.

Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Smotrich, who holds the finance portfolio, have long made inflammatory statements and openly support the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Both men live in settlements deemed illegal under international law.

Veldkamp is also pushing for coordinated EU-level action. On Tuesday, EU ambassadors reviewed a second report on Israel’s compliance with earlier commitments to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The first review found major shortcomings.