Israel-Gaza war: UK ‘wants Israel to win’ but important to help Gaza, says PM Sunak
- The British prime minister told Tel Aviv’s leaders ‘we will stand with you in solidarity in your darkest hour’
- He also said Palestinians ‘are victims of what Hamas has done’ and it is ‘important we continue to provide humanitarian access’
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday, hours after US President Joe Biden left, carrying similar messages of support and condolences for Israelis following the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
Welcoming Wednesday’s decision “to ensure that routes into Gaza will be opened for humanitarian aid to enter”, Sunak borrowed a phrase associated with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in World War Two, vowing to stand by Israel in its “darkest hour”.
“We will stand with your people and we also want you to win,” Sunak said, standing alongside Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, noting that “every precaution” is being taken “to avoid harming civilians, in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas, which seeks to put civilians in harm’s way”.
Sunak also told Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday that it was important to provide humanitarian aid, while standing “in solidarity” with the “right to defend yourself” and “ensure the safe return” of hostages. Israel on Thursday revised the known number of Israeli and foreign hostages to 203, including Britons.
Sunak added that “Palestinians are victims of what Hamas has done. It’s important that we continue to provide humanitarian access”.
Biden on Wednesday said he had secured an offer from Egypt to allow 20 aid trucks to reach Gaza in the coming days, still a fraction of the 100 per day that UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council were needed.
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Over 100 trucks were waiting on the Egyptian side on Thursday, although none were expected to cross before Friday at the earliest.
Herzog and Sunak emphasised the need to avoid the violence escalating.
“They agreed to continue working together to that end,” Sunak’s office said in a statement. Sunak agreed to continue working to secure the release of British nationals taken hostage, the statement added.
Netanyahu said the shock Hamas attack, which killed over 1,400 people, aimed to prevent the expansion of peaceful relations in the Middle East, and asked Britain to keep supporting the Gaza counteroffensive.
“We were on the cusp of expanding that peace, and destroying that move was one of the reasons why this action was taken,” Netanyahu told Sunak.
“This is our darkest hour,” he added. “That means that this is a long war, and we’ll need your continuous support.”
As Sunak headed off to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, inside Gaza on Thursday there was no let-up of the Israeli bombardment that health officials say has killed nearly 3,500 people and wounded more than 12,000.
Air strikes pounded the Gaza Strip, including parts of the enclave’s south that Israel had declared as safe zones, heightening fears among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere is safe.
In the nearly two weeks since the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel, the Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in response.
Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to what it called “safe zones” in the south, strikes continued overnight throughout the densely populated territory.
The bombardments continued after Israel agreed on Wednesday to start allowing Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day siege.
Many among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have cut down to one meal a day and resorted to drinking dirty water.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, an area of shops was reduced to rubble as far as the eye could see, with a pink cot overturned on the ground, windows blown off a clothing store and damaged vehicles.
Rafat Al-Nakhala, who sought shelter in there after obeying Israel’s order for civilians to flee Gaza City in the north of the enclave, said nowhere was safe.
“I’m over 70 years old, I’ve lived through several wars, it’s never been like this, it has never been this brutal, no religion and no conscience. Thank God. We only have hope in God, not in any Arab or Muslim country or anyone in the world, except for God.”
Footage obtained by Reuters from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north showed residents digging with their bare hands inside a damaged building to free a small boy and girl trapped under masonry.
The body of a man was hauled out of the ruins on a stretcher as residents tried to light up the site with torches on their mobile phones.
The United Nations says around half of Gazans have been made homeless, still trapped inside the enclave, one of the most densely populated places on earth.
The plight of Gaza civilians has enraged the Middle East, making it more difficult for Biden and other Western leaders to rally Arab allies to prevent the war from spreading.
An explosion at a hospital in Gaza on the eve of Biden’s visit scuppered his plans to meet Arab leaders, who called off a summit with him. Palestinians blamed the explosion on an Israeli air strike and said it killed nearly 500 people. Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by Palestinian fighters.
Angry demonstrations erupted in cities throughout the region. Biden said US evidence supported the Israeli account of the hospital explosion.
Instead of meeting in person, Biden spoke to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi by phone from Air Force One on his flight back to Washington.
Egypt has long said its crossing to Gaza – the only one not controlled by Israel – is open on its side but aid cannot get through due to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza side.
Cairo has also rejected any suggestion that it open the border to allow a mass exodus of Gazans to flee to safety.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that Israel had agreed to allow aid to Gaza via Egypt “in principle” but “we don’t want to see Hamas stealing aid that’s directed towards the civilian population. It’s a real problem”.
Washington has pushed, so far with no luck, to open the crossing to let the small number of Gazans with foreign passports leave, including a few hundred Palestinian Americans.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
