The UK’s patience is running “thin” with Israel over aid entering Gaza, Lord David Cameron has said, as he is set to warn Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz over the matter today.
The foreign secretary is set to meet Mr Gantz, a former general, after the Israeli had meetings in the White House, which also raised concerns about the aid entering Gaza.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Lord Cameron said the amount of assistance entering Gaza in February was half the amount that entered in January.
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He stressed that it is Israel‘s responsibility, as the occupying power, to ensure the delivery of aid.
The UK supported Israel’s military action against Hamas following the 7 October attacks, but has increased its calls for a cessation of the fighting recently – with Downing Street saying it was “aligned” with the US in its stance in calling for a pause in the fighting as soon as possible.
Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages back to Gaza following the attacks in October.
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Lord Cameron said: “We are facing a situation of dreadful suffering in Gaza. There can be no doubt about that.
“I spoke some weeks ago about the danger of this tipping into famine and the danger of illness tipping into disease and we are now at that point. People are dying of hunger. People are dying of otherwise preventable disease.
“We have been pushing for this aid to get in. We have had a whole set of things we have asked the Israelis to do but I have to report to the House that the amount of aid that got in in February was about half of what got in in January.”
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He added: “So patience needs to run very thin and a whole series of warnings need to be given, starting, I hope, with a meeting I have with minister Gantz when he visits the UK.”
The foreign secretary went on: “Israel is the occupying power, it is responsible and that has consequences, including in how we look at whether Israel is compliant with international humanitarian law.”
Speaking about the future, Lord Cameron said: “Clearly part of a two-state solution is the recognition of Palestine as a state. I don’t think that should happen at the start of the process because I think that takes all the pressure off the Palestinians to reform, but it shouldn’t have to wait until the end.
“I think recognition can become part of the unstoppable momentum we need to see towards a two-state solution.”
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Mr Gantz met US vice president Kamala Harris earlier in the week.
Ms Harris told Mr Gantz that Israel should have a “credible” humanitarian plan before making further advances in southern Gaza.
She added that there must be “an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks”.
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The latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza state that 30,717 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the start of the conflict, with another 72,156 wounded.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has said Israel needs to “maximise every possible means” to get aid into Gaza.
