Rishi Sunak has warned Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “too many people” have died in Gaza during his military campaign to destroy Hamas.
The Prime Minister was questioned in the Commons about Britain’s decision not to back calls at the United Nations for a ceasefire.
Scottish National Party Westminster leader Stephen Flynn warned at Prime Minister’s Questions that almost 1,400 more children could die in the war-ravaged strip between now and Christmas Day if the military strikes don’t ease.
Mr Sunak responded: “We are deeply concerned about the devastating impact of the fighting in Gaza on the civilian population.
“Too many people have lost their lives already and this is something that we have stressed and I have stressed personally to Prime Minister Netanyahu just last week.”
Earlier, a Cabinet minister stopped short of defending Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “proportionate” piling more pressure on it to do more to avoid so many civilian casualties.
Home Secretary James Cleverly stressed that the UK’s position was that Israel had the “right and duty” to defend itself and its citizens after the October 7 massacre by Hamas but in doing so it must be “careful, thoughtful and proportionate” and work within international law.
Asked on LBC Radio if Israel is still being proportionate, ex-Foreign Secretary Mr Cleverly said: “I’m no longer in that portfolio.”
Pressed again on this question, he added: “What I have seen in the interactions I have had with the Israelis is that they have made attempts to remove civilians from military areas, completely unlike Hamas who herd civilians into danger to be used as human shields.”
On the proportionality issue, he added: “I’m not in a position to make an assessment. That will be done by independent, third parties.”
Earlier, Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, speaking out in unusually strong language just hours before the United Nations demanded a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them,” the US president said to donors during a fundraising event on Tuesday.
“They’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he added.
The president said he thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understood, but he wasn’t so sure about the Israeli war cabinet.
Mr Biden’s top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is heading to Israel this week to consult directly about timetables for ending major combat.
Israel’s assault on Gaza to destroy the Hamas terror group has killed at least 18,205 Palestinians including many children and wounded nearly 50,000 since October 7, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Around 1,200 people, including many children, were killed and thousands more wounded in the Islamic State-style massacre by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7 when about 240 hostages were also seized.
Mr Biden also renewed his warnings that Israel should not make the same mistakes of overreaction that the US did following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The US president also specifically called out Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of a far-right Israeli party and the minister of national security in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who opposes a two-state solution and has called for Israel to reassert control over all of the West Bank and Gaza.
Mr Ben-Gvir sits on Israel’s security cabinet, but is not a member of the country’s three-person war cabinet.
The comments prompted responses from both the Israeli military and also Hamas.
“We know to explain exactly how we operate with precision, based on intelligence, even when we are operating on the ground,” said Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
“We know how to operate against the Hamas strongholds in such a way that best separates the uninvolved civilians from terrorism targets.”
Asked about Mr Biden’s comments, Osama Hamdan. a senior Hamas official, said in Beirut that “the resistance and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people have made Biden understand that the Israeli military operation is a crazy act”.
The UN General Assembly voted Tuesday on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, days after the US vetoed a similar measure at the UN Security Council.
The UK abstained from that 13-1 vote, but France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a ceasefire.
Only Security Council resolutions are legally binding under the terms of the international body’s charter, but the vote Tuesday sent a strong message on how the conflict was viewed around the world.
Before Mr Biden’s comments at the fundraiser, Mr Netanyahu said in a statement that he appreciated American support and that he’d received “full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war.”
“Yes, there is disagreement about `the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well. I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”
