Will the UK’s policy on Israel-Palestine shift under new PM Starmer?
Al Jazeera
Palestinians in Gaza have little hope the Labour leader will ease their plight as experts point to possible areas where policy could shift.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza and London, United Kingdom – Israa Saleh, a petite and softly spoken Palestinian doctor who wears a colourful hijab, has mourned for months.
Her colleague Maisara al-Rayyes was killed in November when an Israeli air strike flattened his family home in Gaza City. His remains are still under the rubble.
Saleh described al-Rayyes, who like her was awarded a prestigious Chevening scholarship by the British government, as a “brother”.
“I still grieve over the loss,” she told Al Jazeera in Deir el-Balah, the central Gaza city she has fled to having been displaced 10 times in the past nine months. “This war has stolen everything from us.”
She returned to Gaza in 2022 having completed a master’s degree in Liverpool, a city that reminded her of the Strip with its “coastal nature” and “amazing” people.
