MPs across the Commons told Foreign Secretary David Lammy that it is time to act as he struggled to defend the government’s Gaza policy.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn told Mr Lammy that Israel was now clearly bent on annexing all or part of Gaza alongside killing children and denying “food, water and electricity to the people of Gaza.”

He demanded that the government make it clear that Israel is breaking international law and cancel all arms sales and military co-operation with Israel, including the use of the RAF Akotiri base in Cyprus.

Fellow pro-Gaza independent Shockat Adam slammed Britain’s continued “moral and economic support” for Israel’s genocide, and called for a ban on arms sales and the imposition of economic sanctions to halt the aggression.

Many Labour and Tory MPs expressed exasperation with the government’s failure to turn its evident discomfort with Israel’s murderous breaching of the ceasefire this week into any form of concrete action.

Conservative backbencher Kit Malthouse accused the government of holding the lives of Palestinians at a lesser value than those of others and contrasted the government’s willingness to deploy troops to Ukraine to its passivity over Gaza.

And Scottish National Party spokesman Brendan O’Hara said the world was allowing Israel to act with impunity “killing babies knowing there will be no consequences.”

And indeed, Mr Lammy threatened no consequences for the latest outrages. While repeating his condemnation of the latest military actions he offered no new measures to pressurise Israel and continued to look to diplomacy to lead to a reinstatement of the violated ceasefire.