UK government ministers are to hold an emergency committee meeting as work intensifies to secure “pauses” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas after a tank raid of Gaza.
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, said he would chair a Cobra meeting with figures from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office on Thursday morning.
He said there had been “some success” in delivering aid to civilians in Gaza who were lacking food, water or medicines, but that international negotiations were continuing, to try to reach those still in need.
The UK was pushing for specific pauses in fighting, which would be time and location specific to allow aid agencies to deliver items such as water filters and medical kits, he said. Britain has resisted calls for a total ceasefire.
“The reason why we don’t support a wider ceasefire is one just has to understand the position of people in Israel,” Dowden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “If it had been the case in the UK that a group of terrorists had entered and indiscriminately sought to murder over 1,000 people, there would be demands that we remove this threat.
“And it is perfectly legitimate for the Israeli government, in exercise of its self-defence, to remove the threat to its people, whilst, of course, respecting international law, as we have made the case to the Israelis and to others.”
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is increasingly dire. A Red Cross mission has described scenes of chaos and exhaustion in the face of the total blockade by Israel, a critical fuel shortage and relentless bombing.
Late on Wednesday night, the Israeli military deployed tanks in a “targeted raid” of northern Gaza in what it said was “preparation for the next stages of combat”.
“The soldiers exited the area at the end of the activity,” according to a statement by the Israel Defence Forces.
Dowden said the Cobra meeting would bring “different bits of government together to understand what further steps we can do and to assess the current situation”. Israeli hostages and Palestinian aid were high on the agenda.
“It is about ensuring we have cross-governmental ministerial grip on this situation,” he said.
More than 80 MPs have urged the UK government to call for a cessation of violence. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is supportive of the call for specific pauses.
Five UK nationals remain missing, some of whom are believed to be hostages in Gaza.
