Boris Johnson has urged the government to keep up arms supplies to Israel despite a deadly drone strike which strike which killed seven aid workers.
The attack on World Central Kitchen workers has prompted condemnation from across the world with Rishi Sunak branding the deaths “appalling”.
Joe Biden warned continued US support was dependent on more humanitarian efforts by Israel and within hours more humanitarian corridors were opened.
In the UK some have called for arms sales to Israel to be suspended but writing in his Daily Mail Column Johnson said such a move amounted to a western “death wish”.
He wrote: “If you want an example of the death-wish of Western civilization, I give you the current proposal from members of the British establishment that this country should ban arms sales to Israel.
“If you want evidence of government madness, it appears that Foreign Office lawyers are busily canvassing the idea- which has not yet, as far as I can tell, been rejected by the foreign secretary (David Cameron) himself.”
Johnson’s swipe at Cameron comes amid a heated debate about whether to continue to allow arms exports to Israel after the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers in an Israeli strike.
Government lawyers are considering whether Israel is in breach of international law in its Gaza campaign which has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people, the vast majority who are civilians.
Mr Johnson continued: “He (David Cameron) seems to have gone into a kind of purdah on the subject,” Johnson said of Cameron on arms exports.
Suspending military help to Israel would, he said, be “willing the military defeat of Israel and the victory of Hamas.”
Meanwhile Lord Cameron said on Friday Israel must follow up its initial report into how three British aid workers were killed with “a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency”.
The UK will carefully review findings of the initial Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) report into the incident released on Friday, the Foreign Secretary added.
Three Britons were among the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers who died in airstrikes carried out by the IDF on Monday.
They were John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47.
Israeli officials have dismissed two officers over the strikes, which were described as a “grave mistake stemming from a serious failure”.
Three other senior officers were also reprimanded for their roles in the strike, which took place in Gaza.
