ISRAEL’S military continued to bombard the Gaza Strip yesterday as the deepening humanitarian crisis afflicting Palestinians sparked calls by activists for a public inquiry into Britain’s role.

Hospitals in Gaza said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 82 people, including several women and a week-old baby.

The war against Hamas shows no signs of easing, despite a surge in international anger at the humanitarian impact of Israel’s continued offensive.

Israel claims to have allowed dozens of lorries carrying humanitarian supplies into Gaza on Tuesday, but nothing has yet reached the Palestinians, according to aid groups. 

Internal notes circulated among aid groups yesterday said that no humanitarian lorries had left the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing into southern Gaza. 

The notes said that 65 lorries had moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but they had not made it into Gaza.

It is widely accepted that around 500 aid lorries are needed to make deliveries every day to ensure basic support for the people of the devastated coastal enclave.

The mounting humanitarian crisis has sparked a call by Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn for a public inquiry into the role played by Britain in supporting the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Mr Corbyn said questions in Parliament about Britain’s relationship with Israel were being met with “silence and evasion.”

The former Labour leader said he intended to present a 10-minute rule Bill to the Commons on June 4 demanding a probe into what he described as “Britain’s role in genocide.”

He added: “We are witnessing a genocide, livestreamed before the entire world, and Britain’s continued military co-operation with Israel is utterly indefensible.

“The public deserves to know the full scale of Britain’s complicity in crimes against humanity and we are not going anywhere until we have established the truth.”

Mr Corbyn told reporters that, “every week, MPs ask questions about the extent of Britain’s military co-operation with Israel, including the supply and use of arms, military intelligence and British air bases.

“Every week, these questions are met with silence and evasion.

“It’s time for a public inquiry into Britain’s role in genocide and for the truth to come out.”

The Labour government said last year that it was suspending 30 arms export licences covering items used by Israeli forces in Gaza, out of a total of around 350 licences.

The government said on Tuesday that it was suspending free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault. This came the day after Britain, Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. 

But Andrew Feinstein, author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, said: “Israel’s actions are the most extreme seen since World War II. 

“The British government must immediately halt all arms exports and impose sanctions on Israel. Otherwise its complicity in this genocide will continue apace.”

Communist Party international secretary Kevan Nelson said: “The calculated, callous and depraved measures being imposed on defenceless Palestinian civilians make Israel a pariah in the international community.

“Britain must immediately end the shameful military collusion with the war crimes of this barbarous regime.”

Peace campaigner Murad Qureshi said: “We are seeing medieval barbarity using modern-day munitions in Gaza.”

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “The situation in Gaza is unprecedented in modern times, with the world allowing Israel to inflict collective punishment on a grotesque scale.”

Mr Harvie accused the Westminster government of having “blood on its hands, as it has continued to enable and support Israel’s war crimes.” 

He insisted: “It must now surely end all trade with Israel and join with other countries to ensure that urgent aid is provided to meet the immediate needs of the people of Gaza.”

War on Want executive director Asad Rehman said: “If the British government wanted to stop Israel’s genocide — and uphold international law — it would end its complicity immediately by stopping arming Israel, suspending the current British-Israel trade deal and sanctioning Israel leaders for genocide and war crimes. 

“Anything less and Britain remains complicit in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.”

In the United States, Black Agenda Reports executive editor Margaret Kimberley dismissed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s condemnation of Israel’s escalation as a “ruse meant to fool the public into thinking there has been a change to policies supporting the Israeli genocide when no such change has occurred.”

US activist Eugene Puryear, a leading figure in the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told the Morning Star that both Britain and the United States had “blood on their hands.”

He added: “Our opposition to genocide can be a material force for ending the devastation of Gaza. We must raise our voices, take to the streets and force parliaments and congresses to end all aid to Israel, immediately.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accused Israel of allowing an insufficient amount of aid into Gaza as “a smokescreen to pretend” that its siege is over, while subjecting hospitals and clinics in the enclave to “intensive attacks” and forcing them to close.

“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” said Pascale Coissard, the MSF emergency co-ordinator in Khan Younis.

The aid charity said that at least 20 medical facilities in Gaza had been “damaged or forced partially or completely out of service in the past week by advancing Israeli ground operations, intensified air strikes and widespread evacuation orders.”

The medical group reported another Israeli strike on the Nasser hospital. It was the third time that the hospital had been struck in two months.

During the recent attacks on Khan Younis at least 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.

Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. 

Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament.

A vigil organised by the Stop Trump Coalition was set to be held last night in Parliament Square in London to protest against the Israeli escalation and siege on Gaza.