The United Kingdom has suspended trade negotiations with Israel and summoned their ambassador over what the Prime Minister called Israel’s “intolerable” military operation in Gaza.
The “level of suffering, innocent children being bombed again, is utterly intolerable”, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the UK Parliament on Tuesday, as he told the speaker: “I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel. We repeat out demand for a ceasefire”.
He said: “We repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza”.
These comments came hours after a joint statement by the leaders of the UK, Canada, and France threatened “concrete actions” if Israel does not cease military offensive and lift restrictions on aid deliveries. That military offensive was launched after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.
Later on Tuesday, the British Foreign Secretary David Lammy also addressed Parliament on Israel, announcing the United Kingdom had suspended trade talks with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador. He told the house: “We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict… We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
The Times newspaper notes that as Lammy spoke, other members of Parliament shouted “genocide” from the benches.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile warned the United Kingdom, France, and Canada they were handing Hamas a “huge prize” and “inviting more atrocities” by trying to end the war before the destruction of Hamas.
Telling the UK its turning from Israel was dangerous, Netanyahu said, reports the Daily Telegraph: “Israel accepts President Trump’s vision and urges all European leaders to do the same… the war can end tomorrow if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its murderous leaders are exiled and Gaza is demilitarised. No nation can be expected to accept anything less and Israel certainly won’t.”
The hardening of sentiment by the British government towards Israel is just the latest such development since the left-wing Labour government took power last year. Under the previous Conservative government, Israel had received support including weapons contracts and tacit defence at the International Criminal Court as it attempted to arrest Netanyahu.
Yet those legal opinions were withdrawn after that government fell, the British have now accused Israel of breaching international law, and may be on the path to recognising a Palestinian state. Activists in the UK also target companies providing military equipment to Israel, breaking into weapons factories and smashing the equipment.
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