UK threatens further action against Israel if Gaza ceasefire proposal fails

Top British diplomat David Lammy says the US-backed assistance organisation mechanics successful Gaza is ‘not doing a bully job’.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has decried the humanitarian crisis successful Gaza, saying that the United Kingdom could instrumentality further enactment against Israel if a ceasefire woody to extremity the warfare successful the Palestinian territory does not materialise.

Speaking to the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee connected Tuesday, Lammy besides criticised the caller assistance organisation mechanics successful Gaza via a radical backed by the United States and Israel, dubbed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“We’ve been precise wide that we don’t enactment the assistance instauration that has been acceptable up,” Lammy said. “We it’s not doing a bully job. Too galore radical are close to starvation. Too galore radical person mislaid their lives. We person led globally connected our condemnation the strategy that has been acceptable up.”

Hundreds of Palestinians person been gunned down by Israeli occurrence portion seeking GHF assistance implicit the past weeks.

Asked by a legislator whether the British authorities volition instrumentality measures against Israel if the “intolerable” concern successful Gaza continues, Lammy said: “Yes, we will.”

Last month, the UK joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway in sanctioning Israeli authorities ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for inciting unit against Palestinian communities successful the occupied West Bank.

Weeks earlier, the UK had besides suspended talks for a escaped commercialized statement with Israel implicit the blockade connected Gaza, which has sparked a starvation situation successful the territory. And past year, London halted immoderate arms exports to Israel.

While welcoming the moves, immoderate Palestinian rights supporters person criticised them arsenic symbolic and failing to enforce superior consequences connected Israel for its evident abuses of planetary humanitarian law.

On Tuesday, Lammy condemned settler unit and the enlargement of amerciable Israeli settlements successful the West Bank, saying that they are “flouting planetary law”.

Pressed connected whether the UK’s unit connected Israel has led the Israeli authorities to change its behaviour, Lammy acknowledged that the alteration is “not sufficient”. Still, helium defended London’s record, including caller moves against Israel and enactment for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

“I americium very, precise comfy that you would beryllium hard pressed to find different G7 spouse oregon different state crossed Europe that’s doing much than this authorities has done,” helium said.

Ultimately, Lammy played down the UK’s sway successful the Middle East, saying that it is “but 1 actor”.

The UK is simply a imperishable subordinate of the United Nations Security Council. It is besides a large commercialized spouse of Israel. And according to galore media reports, the British Royal Air Force has conducted hundreds of surveillance flights implicit Gaza to assistance find Israeli captives successful the territory.

The UK has besides cracked down connected Palestinian rights activists astatine home, precocious banning the advocacy radical Palestine Action and arresting dozens of its supporters.

The Labour authorities successful the UK has not recognised Palestine arsenic a authorities – a determination that respective European countries person made implicit the past year.

Lammy said London wants its designation of Palestine to beryllium portion of a factual propulsion towards the two-state solution, not conscionable a symbolic gesture.

He added that the UK wants to recognise Palestine astatine a infinitesimal that helps displacement “the dial against expansion, against violence, against the horrors that we’re seeing successful Gaza, and towards the conscionable origin that is the tendency for Palestinian statehood”.

But Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Emily Thornberry warned Lammy that with settlement expansion and annexation threats, if the UK continues to hold the determination to recognise Palestine, “there won’t beryllium thing near to recognise”.

“We should recognise a Palestinian authorities and past enactment towards ensuring that 1 happens practically,” Thornberry said. “But if we proceed to clasp back, it’ll descent done our fingers.”