‘Have You Seen The Pictures?’: Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden Dodges Gaza ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ Question

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden managed to avoid calling the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian crisis” despite the best efforts of Sky News journalist Kay Burley to force the concession.

The interrogation comes one day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced his support for “specific pauses” or “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict, which he emphasised were different from a ceasefire. For Dowden, admitting there’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza might lead to pressure to use one of these “specific pauses” to temporarily halt the violence.

Burley began pointedly: “Is there a humanitarian crisis in Gaza?”

Dowden said: “There is a very serious situation in Gaza.”

Pressing him further on his non-statement of the obvious, Burley repeated her question: “Is it a humanitarian crisis?”

Dowden began to explain: “Kay, we need to be clear about how this came about in the first place…”

Interrupting him, Burley said: “I’m asking you to be clear.”

Dowden continued, “This came about in the first place because the fences around Gaza were breached by Hamas terrorists…”

“We know that,” Burley said.

Continuing, Dowden emphasised, “…and [Hamas] charged in there and they murdered over 1000 people.”

Shifting the focus back to the immediate impact in Gaza, however, Burley said: “Deputy Prime Minister, I’m talking to you this morning about a baby, a woman with a dead baby.”

Dowden tried to talk over Burley’s interjection and continued: “This is a really important point…”.

“Everything we’re talking about is very important,” said Burley.

The Deputy Prime Minister maintained his focus on the broader scenario.

“This hasn’t occurred in a vacuum,” Dowden said, wryly usurping the phraseology of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has come under fire from Israel for saying that the attack by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum.”

He continued: “This has occurred in a situation where Israel is now seeking to take action to protect its civilians… Israel is seeking to minimise civilian casualties…”

Burley responded: “Some civilian impact? Have you seen the pictures?”

Dowden admitted, “Yes, of course I’ve seen the pictures and it’s heartbreaking, the loss of any innocent civilian life, but the way that we stop this continuing violence is to eliminate the risk of Hamas terrorist attacks from Gaza…”

Heartbreaking, according to the government, but not a “humanitarian crisis” yet.