UK ramps up pressure on Israel over actions in Gaza and West Bank

The UK has suspended trade deal talks with Israel, sanctioned West Bank settlers and summoned the country’s ambassador as the relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government deteriorates.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy hit out at the renewed military offensive in the Gaza strip and the restrictions on aid to the population of the territory, describing Israel’s actions as “monstrous”.

He also condemned the actions of “extremist” settlers in the West Bank, saying Mr Netanyahu’s administration has a responsibility to intervene to halt their actions.

Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely has been called in to the Foreign Office, where Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he would set out the Government’s opposition to the “wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza” and emphasise that the 11-week block on aid “has been cruel and indefensible”.

In the Commons, Mr Lammy said: “We have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement.”

He also said the UK is reviewing its co-operation with the Israeli administration, adding: “The Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary.”

Mr Lammy said Israel suffered a “heinous attack” on October 7, 2023 and the UK Government has backed Israel’s right to defend itself.

But the military escalation in Gaza was “morally unjustifiable, it’s wholly disproportionate, it’s utterly, utterly counterproductive – whatever Israeli ministers claim, this is not the way to bring the hostages safely home”.

He said Mr Netanyahu’s government was planning to drive Gazans from their homes and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.

As MPs called on him to label it a genocide, Mr Lammy said: “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.”

In response to the situation in the West Bank, Mr Lammy announced measures, including financial restrictions and travel bans, targeting prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations accused of backing violence against Palestinian communities.

Mr Lammy said: “The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions. Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”

Responding to the suspension of trade talks, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said  “If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British Government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative.”

He said the sanctions in relation to the West Bank were “unjustified and regrettable”.

And he added: “The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago.

“External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”

Elsewhere, Sir Keir Starmer said the “intolerable” situation in Gaza was the pretext for the UK’s actions.

Humanitarian aid needs to get into Gaza “at pace”, the Prime Minister told broadcasters as he visited a supermarket in north London on Tuesday afternoon.

He added: “The current situation in which we are seeing the bombardment including of children, and the prospect of starvation, is just intolerable.

“Which is why, as I say, we are co-ordinating with our allies on this.”

The Labour Friends of Israel group said that while it opposes Mr Netanyahu’s decision to stop aid into Gaza and supports sanctions against “extremists” in Israel and Palestinian Territories who incite violence, it is “disappointed” at the suspension of trade negotiations.