CNN
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The UK suspended trade negotiations with Israel and approved settlers in the West Bank on Tuesday after British top diplomats denounced the new military operations in Gaza as “morally unfair” and “completely disproportionate.”
The move comes the day after the UK, France and Canada threatened to take “concrete actions” including target sanctions.
Israel has been carrying out new attacks in Gaza since May 5, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday saying it plans to “control the entire Gaza Strip.” Hundreds have died, and the Israeli lockdown meant there was no assistance for 11 weeks until Monday when five trucks were allowed.
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer on Tuesday called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “unbearable” and emphasized that aid needs to enter the strip “at a pace.”
“The current situation we see artillery fires involving children and the prospect of starvation is just unbearable,” Starmer said.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lamy emphasized that the UK supported the right to protect Israel after Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023, but said the conflict was “entering a new dark phase.” “For 11 weeks, the Israeli military blocked Gaza and left no global food program left – the remaining shares,” he said. “We are entering a dark new phase in this conflict. The Netanyahu government plans to take Gazan from the house to the south corner and allow some of the assistance needed.”
Israel’s British ambassador, Tsipra, has been summoned to Israeli attacks in Gaza, violence by Israeli settlers and expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the foreign office statement added.
Settlers are Jewish Israelites who live in Israel’s territory, primarily in communities built by the Israeli government. Since the Hamas attack on October 7, settlers have been accelerating their grasp of land on the West Bank with state support.
“While settler violence has skyrocketed, the approval of the settlement has accelerated,” Ramy told lawmakers Tuesday, announcing new sanctions on three individuals and four entities in addition to sanctions last fall.
Ramie added: “We will continue to act against those who are committing the violent abuse of human rights.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the sanctions against settlers “inexplicable, unjust and particularly unfortunate,” adding that “outside pressure will not divert from the path of fighting for its existence and its existence and security, to the path of security with the enemy seeking its destruction.”
“If the UK government is willing to harm its own economy due to anti-Israel obsessions and internal political considerations, it is a decision,” he said of the suspension of UK trade negotiations.
Hundreds of thousands of people face starvation
According to the UN, Israel’s months of aid blockade, in addition to ongoing military attacks in Gaza, faces one in five people in the enclave facing starvation as the entire edge of hunger approaches hunger.
Israel says the blockade, along with a new military campaign, is intended to pressure Hamas to release hostages held in the strip. However, many international organizations have accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war.
Israeli forces announced on Sunday that they would allow “basic amounts of food” to enter Gaza. According to the military, the reason was the fact that Gaza’s “starcion crisis” “puts operations at risk.”
Netanyahu also suggested that Israel is allowing small amounts of food to the enclave to maintain support from its international allies.
The Israeli Prime Minister told him, “Even our closest allies in the world, even the US senators I personally know, support Israel’s war against Hamas, but “cannot accept the image of a massive hunger.”
“We’re approaching a dangerous point that we don’t want to reach,” Netanyahu added.
Israeli general Yaa Golan, leader of Israel’s left-wing Democratic Party, warned on Tuesday that Israel is on its “in the process of becoming a pariah state” due to its actions in Gaza.
“Sane countries don’t engage in wars against civilians, kill babies as a hobby, and set no goals of expelling the population,” he told Israeli public news channel Kan News. Netanyahu called Golan’s claims “an outrageous instigation against our heroic soldiers and the state of Israel.”
According to Israeli aid agencies, five aid trucks have entered Gaza. This approved the shipment of aid to the local community.
Israel approved the UN’s “about 100” trucks to the enclave early Tuesday, according to Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN’s Office of Humanitarian Affairs.
Laerke said he hopes many, if not all, aid trucks can enter Gaza on Tuesday. A video from Kerem Shalom Crossing showed several trucks moving towards the Gaza side of the intersection while other trucks parked in an adjacent car park.
This story has been updated in development.
