Israel ‘needs to do more to alleviate suffering in Gaza’
RISHI Sunak has urged Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to ease the suffering in Gaza as pressure mounts over arms sales.
The Prime Minister insisted legal advice must be followed over the conflict, which he said left export licences to Israel unchanged.
But Mr Sunak backed US President Joe Biden’s call for a six to eight-week ceasefire.
The PM is under growing pressure to suspend arms exports after seven aid workers, including three UK military veterans, were killed in an Israeli drone strike last week.
On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said Britain would continue sales, prompting criticism from aid groups and charities.
Intolerable
Mr Sunak defended the move yesterday, but said he had made it “very clear” to Israeli leader Mr Netanyahu that aid access needed to improve.
The PM said: “It was a shocking tragedy what happened to our veterans when they were selflessly carrying out aid missions.
“I’ve also said repeatedly the situation in Gaza is increasingly intolerable.
“The humanitarian suffering that people are experiencing isn’t right and Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to do more to alleviate that. I’ve made that very clear to him.”
Mr Sunak said the UK had a “long-established process” over arms export licences, which was reviewed regularly.
He added: “That’s led to no change. None of our closest allies have currently suspended existing arms licences either, so we continue to discuss these things with our allies.” Ministers have resisted calls to publish legal advice on whether Israel’s action in Gaza is in line with international law. But they say they are acting in accordance with it.
Asked whether he agreed with Mr Biden’s ceasefire calls, Mr Sunak said: “Yes, we’ve been very aligned on this. What we want to see is an immediate humanitarian pause so we can get the hostages out.And it’s critical to remember Hamas is still holding hostages, including Brits.
“We want to get the hostages released unconditionally, get aid in and then use that as a platform to build a sustainable ceasefire.”
Mr Netanyahu has said that a date has been set for a ground invasion in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where about 1.4 million Palestinians are living.
Meanwhile, his foreign minister, Israel Katz, threatened a direct strike on Iran if it launched an attack from its territory.
Tehran has blamed Israel for a blast at its consulate in Syria earlier this month which killed Iranian generals.