David Cameron has accused Israel of demanding the closure of a key aid crossing into Gaza, in a clash with a British-born government spokesperson that has reportedly resulted in the official’s suspension.
In a blistering letter, the UK foreign secretary said aid was not getting into Gaza owing to “arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures, including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours”.
The spokesperson, Eylon Levy, whom Israeli media reported as having been suspended, had tweeted Lord Cameron suggesting Israel was not placing any obstacles in the delivery of aid.
Levy has not commented on the cause of his suspension, but British MPs said some of the claims were not cleared inside the Israeli government. There were also reports of a previous clash between Levy and Cameron that had created tensions.
In a letter to the chair of the foreign affairs select committee chairwoman, Alicia Kearns, Cameron denied a claim by Levy that the UN had requested Kerem Shalom crossing be closed on Saturdays. Cameron said Israel closes the vital aid crossing for the Sabbath.
The tone of the Cameron letter is remarkable for the frankness with which he attributes the problems in distributing aid, flatly contradicting Israeli assertions that the number of aid trucks crossing into Gaza had reached a satisfactory level.
He wrote: “You cite claims that international donors should send as much aid as they wish and Israel will facilitate its entry. I wish that were the case. It is of enormous frustration that UK aid into Gaza has been routinely held up waiting for Israeli permissions. For instance, I am aware of some UK-funded aid being stuck at the border just under three weeks waiting for approval.
“The main blockers remain arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours.”
He added that the number of trucks entering Gaza by daily average was 165 but with large fluctuations. He said this was an improvement on January but that more urgent progress was needed to get the figure up to the 500 trucks a day that arrived before the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October .
He also argued one of the key reasons for distribution issues within Gaza was that Israel was preventing the necessary staff from getting visas. He wrote “this needs to change”, and said more than 50 visas were awaiting Israeli approval to allow experienced staff to enter Gaza.
Part of Cameron’s evident frustration is that he and his special envoy for humanitarian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories feel they have been raising the same checklist of requests since mid-January.
Cameron said Israel had the ability to turn the water supplies back on by allowing fuel to enter Gaza for water pumping and salination. He said that in northern Gaza 300,000 people were without water. “Israel has the ability to turn the taps back – they should do so,” he wrote.
On 8 March, Levy wrote a now-deleted post on X responding to Cameron, who had urged Israel “to allow more [aid] trucks into Gaza”.
Levy said: “I hope you are also aware there are NO limits on the entry of food, water, medicine, or shelter equipment into Gaza, and in fact the crossings have EXCESS capacity.
“Test us. Send another 100 trucks a day to Kerem Shalom and we’ll get them in,” he added, referring to an Israeli-controlled border crossing.
