During the onslaught this summer, 'I watched with horror the tragic loss of life and destruction in Gaza. A health crisis looming in Gaza for trapped civilians, with dire conditions in hospitals... With borders closed, casualties unable to leave to seek treatment elsewhere...'

THE CRISIS IN GAZA HAS NOT GONE AWAY. The bombs have ceased but left a trail of destruction behind: power supplies & sewerage infrastructure are destroyed; aquifers, ground water and sea are contaminated; hospitals are running on generators with fuel supplies never certain for more than 24 hours at a time; people are living in makeshift shelters; children have debilitating injuries and tragic bereavement; the blockade continues and now the cold and (contaminated) flood waters of winter are approaching...

When I first set up this petition, the hospital ship RFA Argus was moored in Falmouth. We requested that the British Government unilaterally and rapidly deployed RFA Argus to Gaza. We were ignored, despite our MPs formally petitioning the Government on our behalf. Since then after a summer spent doing training exercises off the coast of southern England and attending Naval open days... Argus is now thankfully more usefully deployed to help with the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.

If not RFA Argus, then what can we in the UK do to help avoid further health crisis in Gaza? Help us get this petition to 100,000 signatures. The grouping of MPs, 'Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East' have pledged to work on this campaign from 14th October 2014. 100,000 signatures will give them the bite they need to trigger a debate on the situation in Gaza, in the UK Parliament.

So we request that the UK government sends a ship equipped to provide humanitarian aid and medical relief to the people of Gaza. Sending a British ship across the sea to Gaza would not only help over-stretched medical services in Gaza, it would be a beacon of hope, to a people who have little left to hope for.

We should be at the forefront of the humanitarian response, a pioneering lead from the UK in the face of traumatic world events. Send a ship to Gaza!