Labour MP Helen Hayes also recounted her recent visit to Israel, where she met both sides, which she said was a "distressing, moving and humbling experience".

She spoke to a young man called Yottam, whose parents had been abducted and murdered by Hamas, at the Kibbutz Beeri.

"As we stood outside the rubble of Yottam home he said 'vengeance is a valid feeling, it is not a valid policy," she said, urging MPs to set aside their own differences to secure peace.

MPs are debating the new procedure now that the government has withdrawn its amendment.

It comes after a passionate debate on the conflict - focusing mostly on the suffering in the Gaz Strip.

Labour MP Fleur Anderson, however, stressed the pain of Israeli hostages.

She says she has visited the area twice in the last six months, including a trip last week during during which she visited one of the Kibbutz attacked on 7 October, Jerusalem and the West Bank.

She says she met the mother of one of the hostages. Her son had gone to the music festival on 6 October and the next morning texted his mother "I love you" and "I'm sorry". She hasn't heard from him since.

"It's not a competition of pain and tears, it's just a bunch of pain and tears," the hostage's mother told Anderson.

"We should learn from this, we should learn about solidarity both with the Jewish people and the Palestinian people and find words to say that here and across out country," Anderson says.

She lists what needs to happen now: an immediate ceasefire, no attack on the 1.5 million in Rafah, the release of hostages, a freeze on demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, and the international recognition of the state of Palestine.

"The IDF have said they are planning 2024 to be the year of war - we are here today to say no," she concludes.

Mordaunt is back on her feet an says "This most grave matter has become a political row within the Labour Party" and that "regrettably Mr Speaker has inserted himself into that row".

She says the Speaker's action has "undermined the confidence of this House in being able to rely on long-established conventions".

She asks that the Speaker reassure MPs he "will not seek to undermine those interests" in order to protect the interests of particular MPs and "future opposition day debates will not be hijacked in this way".

The deputy speaker has now responded to the announcement that the government will "play no further part in today's proceedings".

"If the government is not going to move its amendment, the questions will be first of all on the current amendment and secondly on the motion itself either as amended or in its original form," the deputy speaker says.

The only amendment to the SNP motion is now from the Labour Party.

The Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt has just told MPs the government will "play no further part in today's proceedings".

She added the government's position in Israel and Gaza remained unchanged.

This suggests the government's amendment to the SNP motion will not go to a vote.

That could then mean that Labour's amendment, which the SNP pledged to support earlier this evening, could pass.

People take part in a rally organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign outside the Houses of Parliament in London, as MPs continue to debate calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Image source, AFP

Image source, EPA

Image source, PA Media

Final speeches are being made as we head towards the first vote.

Among those, Labour MP Zarah Sultana describes the situation in Gaza as a "moral calamity".

She says that for the last 137 days, the enclave has been subject to "indiscriminate assault".

"History will remember this. I urge you, I implore you. Vote for an immediate ceasefire today."

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Stephen Flynn, the leader of the Scottish National Party in Westminster, has said his MPs will back the Labour amendment tonight.

That means they will sign up to Labour’s wording calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. The Labour motion also “condemns the terrorism of Hamas” and notes “that Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence”.

Labour’s motion does not include mention of the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” which is a technical term amounting to a war crime.

The SNP’s support means more MPs will vote for this wording.

But remember the Conservatives have a majority in the House of Commons. So unless lots of Conservative MPs rebel and vote for Labour’s wording, it is still likely to fail.

These are very approximate timings but we are expecting a vote on the Labour amendment to start at 18:10, with a result around 18:25.

Then there will be a second vote on the overall motion, either with the Labour amendment if that passes, or with the original SNP wording if the Labour amendment fails. We are expecting voting for that to start around 18:25, with the result around 18:40.

If that overall vote fails, then there will be a the third vote – this time on the government amendment – with voting expected to start around 18:40, and finish around 18:55.

These are all best guesses, so bear with us if the timings slip!

The debate continues for another half an hour and Liberal Democrat Richard Foord says he will vote for the motions calling for an immediate ceasefire.

He says being a friend of Israel involves being listened to, and that is not happening to the British government at the moment.

Noting that Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron had suggested the UK might recognise a Palestinian state, Foord observes that was "utterly rebuffed" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He adds that Hamas terrorists sought to provoke an "excessive response", which in turn will provoke future retribution as another Palestinian generation mourns its dead and is attracted to the very Islamism that Israel is trying to destroy along with Hamas.

Foord accuses Israel of a lack of proportionality and failing to limit its military objectives. He quotes a constituent, a former senior British ambassador, as saying the UK response has been "ineffectual, morally indefensible" and also "hugely damaging" to British interests.

The deputy speaker has just said voting will be earlier than expected at 18:10 GMT.

The first vote is expected to be on the Labour amendment.

It means all votes could be finished by 19:00.

The House of Commons deputy speaker asks MPs to lose a few paragraphs from their speeches in the interest of time.

He says it will help if they keep their speeches shorter than three minutes - and ideally closer to two minutes.

Liz Saville-Roberts, an MP of Plaid Cymru, starts her comments by saying that everyone in the House knows what is unfolding in Rafah.

She talks of an "irrevocable disaster" in a refugee camp the size of Cardiff, but with triple the number of people in its boundaries.

She says it's shameful that, despite the evidence, the government is refusing to support calls for a ceasefire.

She adds that it is doing "reputational damage to the UK's interest at home and abroad".

"Where are the arms export bans to Israel, which give clear evidence of their use against civilians?" she asks.

"Where is the diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government to comply with the ICJ ruling?"

She adds: "Where is the provision of treatment for injured Palestinian children in the UK specialist hospitals?"

She concludes her statement: "The longer we allow death and violence to continue, the rising reactions in the form of antisemitism and Islamophobia will continue to spread through all our communities."

Labour MP Apsana Begum says more than 29,000 people have now been killed in Gaza and asks if the government believes there is any limit to the "slaughter".

Starving civilians, destroying schools and hospitals, and targeting refugee camps can never be a legitimate military campaign, she adds.

Begum says there is a "chilling disregard" for Palestinian lives, a "dehumanisation" and racism among much of the UK's "political establishment".

This means, she argues, that for many in power any expression of Palestinian identity is deemed unacceptable, while the US and the UK use their power to ensure "this nightmare continues".

Image source, Reuters

One of the main differences between the SNP proposal on Israel-Gaza and the government's amendment is how they are framing an end to fighting.

The Scottish National Party are calling for an "immediate ceasefire" - a term Labour also use in their amendment - while the government is proposing an "immediate humanitarian pause".

All parties want an end to fighting for now to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza - the UN has been warning of famine in the territory since December.

But they are disagreeing over how long that end to fighting should last. The government is stressing in its amendment that it supports Israel's right to defend itself and recover its hostages, which may require further military action.

Earlier Sunak said calling for an "immediate ceasefire" now was "not in anyone's interest" as it could collapse in days or weeks. Instead, he said, the government was calling for an "immediate humanitarian pause" to allow hostages out and aid into Gaza, and was working towards a "sustainable" ceasefire in the longer term.

SNP MP Dave Doogan says nearly a quarter of his case work since October has centred on the "humanitarian disaster" in Israel and Gaza, with the vast majority of his constituents calling for an end to the death, destruction and "unimaginable misery".

He describes the Hamas fighters who carried out the 7 October attacks as "murderous criminals".

Doogan says the conflict is a "disaster for everybody", for people in Gaza and Israel alike, adding that there are many people in Israel who are "desperately sad" about what is going on in Gaza.

Image source, House of Commons

Amy Callaghan, an SNP MP says that "the only way to guarantee, not only the safety of the Palestinian population in Gaza, but also the immediate release of hostages is immediate ceasefire".

"Time for us all to show moral courage and recognise that the only way to give an end to the suffering is by voting for an immediate ceasefire," Callaghan says.

She gives some examples from Gaza to explain why an immediate ceasefire is needed: "We saw hospitals bombed, premature babies dying in incubators, white phosphorous falling from the sky, now we are seeing a death toll of almost 30,000 civilians, mostly women and children.

"Surely they know tonight they all have to back a ceasefire."

Next up is Sharon Hodgson from Labour, who says she cannot vote for the SNP motion without the Labour amendment.

The amendment, she says, provides an opportunity for the whole House to speak with one voice and call for a ceasefire.

"We cannot call for a ceasefire without an amendment that understands that Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting while Hamas continues with violence and hostage holding."

A ceasefire must be by definition, she says, two-sided.

She says Labour's amendment is a chance for the House to come together and "call for an end to this horrific period of violence".

We all condemn antisemitism for fear of what it can lead to and what it has led to in the past, says Angus MacNeil, independent MP.

The House here can’t impose a ceasefire, he says, but it can be an important domino towards one.

The alternative to a ceasefire is to continue fire, says MacNeil, which he says means maybe tens of thousands more people would die.

“No more, Mr Speaker, no more”, he concludes.

Image source, House of Commons

SNP MP Alan Brown says that the displacement of two million citizens by instruction of an occupying power breaches international law by violating article 49 of the Geneva Convention.

"So where is the government's or Labour's condemnation of the displacement of civilians," Brown asks.

He then adds that the Hamas attacks were brutal but says that the number of civilian deaths in Gaza are not justified.

Brown continues to say that unless there's a ceasefire, "hostages are also at risk of death from disease, from starvation or even [being] killed by [the] IDF".

"So perhaps it's time to listen to the brave families of hostages who have actually been protesting against Netanyahu and calling for a different approach."

Conservative MP for Bolton North East Mark Logan breaks ranks with his party, telling MPs: "In my conscience, I cannot rest on the government's position in Gaza.

"We are here to protect lives, and this is the opportunity today to call for an immediate ceasefire. Maybe it's just a signal but this signal has to be given."

He gives the example of Iraq 20 years ago, saying: "We thought we were doing the good friend thing with the United States. But a better friend says 'no, this must stop'. So a ceasefire must happen now."

"I no longer can continue backing in public the line that we have taken on this side of the House, regrettably," Logan adds.