Image source, House of Commons

Conservative Miriam Cates says "war is terrible", and this one is "devastating" and "appalling", but it was "unavoidable" because of Hamas's massacre on 7 October.

Any government that did not act to prevent the 7 October attacks happening again would be failing in its duty to protect its citizens, she says, adding "we are all appalled by the loss of life", but to call for an unconditional ceasefire is "naive".

Cates argues there is no moral equivalence between "murderous terrorists and rapists" attacking civilians "with glee" and a nation state using conventional forces to "root out dangerous enemies".

Hamas bears responsibility for all the deaths in the conflict and must be destroyed, she adds.

Next up is Dr Rosena Allin-Khan from Labour. She's recounting an anecdote from a trip to Egypt that she returned from just last night.

"It was truly obvious to me that there has not been adequate protection of civilians."

"This minute, now", she says, we must have an immediate ceasefire to save tens of thousands of lives.

She says the UK has a historic responsibility to the people of the Middle East, and a two-state solution is in the country's national interest.

Back in the Commons, and SNP MP Steve Bonnar, speaking after Ian Paisley, tells the House that he'd just been called an antisemite by Paisley and calls it an "absolute disgrace".

The reaction comes after Paisley criticised the SNP motion for "denying the attack on Israel" and "what happened to the Jewish people".

"That is where he is bringing this debate to today," Bonnar adds.

He is then told to be careful what he says - he is reminded that the Speaker of the House says that "we must all use temperate language particularly in debates which are very heated."

As the Commons debate continues on a busy afternoon that also saw an uproar at Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle's amendment selections, let’s take a look at what MPs will actually be voting on:

• First, MPs will vote on Labour's amendment to the SNP motion, which calls for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire". It emphasises the role of Hamas as well as Israel in bringing about a lasting pause in fighting. It also calls for "rapid and unimpeded" humanitarian relief to be provided in Gaza. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier told the House he felt the SNP motion was "one-sided". If the amendment passes, there will be a second vote on the new, amended motion
• If it fails, the SNP's original motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and Israel will be looked at by MPs. This says a ceasefire is the “only way to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians” and condemns the “collective punishment” of Palestinians

• If that fails - which appears likely as it is opposed by both the Conservatives and Labour - a government amendment will be voted on by MPs. It calls for an “immediate humanitarian pause as the best way to stop the fighting and to get aid in and hostages out". It reaffirms Israel’s “right to self-defence” and supports moves "towards a permanent sustainable ceasefire"

Both the amendments, and the SNP motion, call for the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Image source, House of Commons

Ian Paisley, DUP MP, is now up and says that the house is being asked to vote for a motion [the SNP's] that doesn't contain any word about the "rape of women, the murder of children" or the "unjustifiable" attack on Israel.

"It's as if, Mr Deputy Speaker, it didn't happen. It's as if it was invisible, it's as if, like other people in the 20th century denied things that happened to Israel and the Jewish people. That's essentially what we're seeing tonight, the denial of an attack on Israel," Paisley says as MPs erupt in protest.

He gives way to a very cross Kirsten Oswald (SNP) who says that "we all want people to stop being killed, women and children particularly".

But, she says, his remarks "where he was conflating things that should never be conflated, do not show this house in the best way".

Leila Nathoo
Political correspondent

A source close to the Speaker has said the suggestion that he was pressured by the Labour party to select their Gaza amendment was "absolutely untrue".

The source said the Speaker did not make the decision lightly - and was deeply aware of the emotion surrounding this debate and members' passion about it.

The source added that the Speaker recognised that members, their families and their staff were under a lot of pressure and was mindful of their safety.

He wanted to make sure as many members as possible could have their voices heard, rather than them "going back to their constituencies without having been able to express themselves", the source said.

Jerome Mayhew, a Conservative MP from Broadland, says there is a universal desire for the violence to stop immediately.

"The question is what is the most effective method to achieve that?" he asks.

After mentioning that this is an SNP debate, he criticises the party for not making any reference "to the stated intention of Hamas to repeat atrocities [against Israel] again and again, similar to and worse than [what] was achieved on 7 October".

"Yet again, removing Hamas from Gaza, again something the SNP motion makes no reference to, is the only way for Israelis and Palestinian to stop being killed," he argues.

"The most important thing for the people in the region is an immediate cessation of violence which is achieved by a humanitarian pause," adds Mayhew, saying that will let the aid in and ensure the release of the hostages.

"Hamas don't just terrorise Israelis, they terrorise Palestinians as well," Mayhew says, as he reiterates the need for a two-state solution, but acknowledges that will take time.

Conservative Steve Double says everyone wants to see a ceasefire in Gaza, and no one wants to see an Israeli escalation in Rafah.

But a real ceasefire has to mean Hamas laying down its weapons - otherwise it is an "Israeli surrender" - and Hamas is very unlikely to do that, he adds.

Double says a ceasefire existed on 6 October until Hamas broke it by killing more than 1,200 Israelis and committing the "most despicable" sexual assaults.

The SNP motion is "glaring", he adds, in its lack of condemnation of Hamas, which remains an obstacle to peace and a two-state solution.

Image source, House of Commons

We're now hearing from Andrew Gwynne from Labour, who says he'll be voting for an immediate ceasefire tonight, "because the fighting needs to stop, and it needs to stop now".

Words matter, he says, "and it matters that we call for a ceasefire, not a unilateral ceasefire, but a ceasefire of both sides".

His comments are receiving quite a lot of interjection from the house but he pushes on.

He's now taking aim at the SNP motion and listing things he says are missing from it. These include aid, a peace process, tackling wrongdoing in the West Bank, a Palestinian state, according to him.

He's interrupted by an independent MP Angus MacNeil, who says: "Don't be so silly man, you know exactly what this is about, this is about stopping the killing now."

The pair have a to-and-fro before Gwynne resumes.

"Enough is enough, let peace prevail, and let's have a ceasefire now."

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse is up next and says there can be no military victory over Hamas.

That is widely accepted across the world and "whispered even in Israel".

Every bomb that lands is a recruiting sergeant for Hamas, he says.

"The UK is trapped in a crazy battle of semantics" over the wording of the calls for a ceasefire.

He goes on to say that the British people think "we have no clue what we're doing any more".

But what the British people want is for the killing to stop, the hostages to be returned and aid to flow into Gaza, he concludes.

SNP MP John Nicolson is now speaking. He says Gaza is in ruins and that women are having to endure caesareans without anaesthetics, "yet this House has been paralysed".

Innocent people, children and babies "not remotely responsible for the atrocities carried out by evil Hamas" are being slaughtered, he says, which he adds is the definition of collective punishment.

He says the Commons cannot force Netanyahu to stop the bombings but the point is that they can apply pressure, adding that "silence is tacit acceptance of Israel's actions".

The SNP's motion was not about embarrassing pollical opponents, as some have suggested, Nicolson says, and that "not everything is about Britain".

He says he won't speak for colleagues cross-party but says some have lost their front bench jobs because they can't "in good conscience remain silent" and says he hopes the majority of MPs now feel the same.

"If we don't call for an immediate ceasefire now, when will we call for an immediate ceasefire," he asks the House.

Image source, House of Commons

Rehman Chishti, a Conservative MP, says: "In the backdrop of this debate we saw the terrible loss of innocent lives, 29,000 Palestinians have lost their lives, 1,200 Israelis and 88 journalists have been killed."

And he adds that so far, "We have not been able to achieve the objectives of peace and release of hostages".

Chishti says that he will be voting for motions "which call for immediate humanitarian ceasefire or which call for immediate ceasefire because the time has come".

"If not now then when?" he asks.

"The UK is a member of the UN Security Council and the prime minister of the UK has said the UK will lead and not be led."

The SNP's Chris Law says he is just back from Cairo where aid workers told him of a "man-made humanitarian catastrophe" - tens of thousands of innocent people killed, horrific injuries, and Gazans with "nowhere to go".

Law tells MPs he is ashamed by the international community's "moral cowardice" to prevent or stop "this atrocity", leaving people in Gaza with "hope extinguished".

Experienced aid workers told him they had never experienced "anything like the horrors of Gaza", he adds - while UK aid was stuck sitting in trucks by the border.

How anyone could vote against an immediate ceasefire is beyond me and my constituents, Law says.

You can read more about the complexities of getting aid into Gaza and why the World Food Programme recently stopped its aid deliveries into Gaza here.

Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh is now addressing the house, and begins by saying nothing can justify the "genocide" on 7 October.

"There is no point in having a unilateral ceasefire if you're faced with a death cult who will go on bombing and killing innocent Israelis," he says, referring to Hamas.

It will achieve nothing, he continues, stressing the need for a balanced, sustainable ceasefire.

"There's no future for Palestinian people in Gaza with Hamas in control," Leigh adds.

He describes the government's amendment as "moderate" and "sensible", and urges MPs to support it.

Conservative MP Stephen Crabb says parliament needs to unite around calls on Hamas to release the hostages it took during the 7 October attacks.

"My problem with the SNP motion - there is no mention of the sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war against Israeli women. These crimes were recorded on mobile phones and body cams. Hamas fighters committing the most barbaric acts," Crabb says.

Crabb goes on to criticise the SNP motion for "no mention of Hamas guilt" in the conflict.

"At the heart of it, it lets Hamas off the hook for what happened on 7 October," he says

The backdrop for today's debate is a concerted campaign to pressure and bully MPs to fall into line with a very specific wording about a ceasefire, he says, adding that has an objective of "keeping Hamas in place in Gaza".

Image source, House of Commons

We are now hearing from Anum Qaisar, SNP. She begins by reiterating that Jewish people have friends in the chamber and says that "Jewish people are not the Israeli government and Muslims are not Hamas".

She continues to say that "Gaza is under siege from the air," she says, and mentions the F35 bomber and other weapons being made in British factories.

"We simply do not know if those weapons are being used by Israeli authorities in the massacre of families and children in Gaza," Qaisar says.

She adds that politics is all about choices and that the UK government has the choice to suspend arms exports to Israel.

She adds that it "sickens me to my core that the UK continues to sell arms to Israel".

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

Senior Labour figures have told BBC Newsnight that the Commons speaker Sir Lyndsay Hoyle was left in no doubt that Labour was prepared to see him fall as speaker after the general election unless he called its Gaza amendment.

Newsnight has been told that it was made clear that Hoyle would need Labour votes to be re-elected after the general election and this might not be forthcoming.

That would effectively mean he would lose the speakership.

Back in the House, Conservative MP Theresa Villiers has the floor next.

Everyone in this chamber wants fighting to stop and the conflict to come to an end, she says.

While the government must do everything to secure another humanitarian pause, she continues, demanding an immediate ceasefire "amounts to asking Israel to unilaterally lay down its arms while its hostages remain in peril".

She says unless Hamas is defeated and removed from power, there is nothing to stop it rebuilding its capacity to commit "heinous acts of terrorism".

She fears an immediate ceasefire would amount to "abandoning Israel during its time of need".

The government motion has her support, she says.

The SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn says in a statement his party will back the Labour amendment.

In a statement, he welcomes Labour's change in position, which he says follows "months of public and SNP pressure".

He says: "While the Labour Party amendment is deficient in a number of ways, we will nonetheless vote for it to maximise the chance of the UK parliament supporting an immediate ceasefire.

"Should it fall, we urge all MPs to back the SNP motion in kind."

Allan Dorans from the SNP is talking about the risks taken by humanitarian workers, health workers and journalists in Gaza. "We owe them a debt of gratitude," he says.

At least 136 staff at the UN's Palestinian refugee agency have been killed in Gaza, he says, and some 300 health workers been killed during the conflict.

"Journalists too have paid a heavy price," says Dorans.

At least 126 have been killed in Gaza with many others arrested, he says. Their presence in Gaza is essential for the world to be informed of horrific events taking place, "and in due course to hold those responsible to account".

The US and UK have much more work to do in challenging all the participants in this conflict and protecting human rights, he says.

Dorans goes on to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire today. "I will be voting in favour of SNP motion," he concludes.