A Labor MP compared the suggested targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli drones to a “warped video game”.

Patricia Ferguson, who represents Glasgow West, said she feared MPs and the general public risked becoming desensitised to the brutality associated with war.

Ms Ferguson referred to recent parliamentary evidence given by Professor Nizam Mamode, a retired vascular surgeon, who returned from the region and described children being targeted by Israeli forces.

Since the Israeli operation in response to the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, the official death toll in Gaza is 43,391, including 16,500 children, with 10,000 people still missing, she said.

Ms Ferguson told a debate at Westminster Hall: “The Lancet recently published a report suggesting that the death toll could actually be closer to 186,000. So it’s almost gotten to the point where the numbers are so overwhelming that we risk becoming used to what they represent.”

She added: “I thought we had seen and heard it all, the death, disease and sheer brutality reported on our television screens night after night. But then I went to Professor Mamode’s presentation. He spoke calmly and slowly about his experiences in Palestine, using slides and a video diary.

“It demonstrated the symmetrical pouch wounds on the body of a dead child. Wounds in the region of the major arteries of the body, too precise to have been the work of a human sniper. They were the work of drones. It targets innocent civilians and in this case a child.”

An emotional Ms Ferguson went on to say: “For me it was the cold calculation of using machines to kill children, I thought it was some sort of warped video game that was the most disturbing aspect of Professor Mamode’s presentation which made those statistics to mean…a big deal.”

Ms Ferguson, who chairs the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, called for Israeli hostages held by Hamas to be released and for the UK government to back a ceasefire at the UN Security Council on Tuesday night.

She said she would like to see injured children brought to the UK and Europe for treatment.

“The shocking part of the statistics is that the 16,000 children killed do not include those who were maimed. One of the things I would like to see, personally, is that more young people can come to Europe, to the UK for treatment because their injuries are serious and they haven’t received the treatment they need at the time . surgery.

“Their situation is dire, in the future, and we could make it less dire.”

She was backed by former Labor shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Independent Hayes and Harlington MP said: “I think this is the ninth occasion we have raised the issue now. It would be very useful to have a response from the Minister…to see progress in developing the scheme that was recommended to us based on the Ukrainian scheme to bring the children here for treatment.

“There was a desire from a number of clinicians here to facilitate that.”

Labor MP for Halesowen Alex Ballinger said a child in Gaza was killed on average every 10 minutes.

“Some might justify this as a sad but inevitable result of fighting a terrorist organization in a densely populated area,” Mr Ballinger said.

“But while Israel has every right to respond to the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7, the failure to respect civilian lives and ensure adequate humanitarian access during their response is completely unacceptable.”

Foreign Secretary Anneliese Dodds said: “It is very clear that Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. On November 12, the Famine Assessment Committee’s warning marked a terrible new stage, famine is now imminent in areas of northern Gaza. Hunger, malnutrition and associated deaths in these areas are increasing rapidly, as is the risk of disease.”

She added: “Now, northern Gaza has no fully functioning hospitals. The sick and wounded must be allowed to leave Gaza to receive care.”

Ms Dodds said aid in Gaza was at its lowest level during the conflict and winter was approaching.

“Israel must honor its commitment to flood Gaza with aid,” she said. “The UN and its agencies must be able to fulfill this mandate.”