Cameron to ‘warn’ Gantz over Gaza aid

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said Israel needs “a whole series of warnings” over the amount of aid reaching Gaza.

Speaking during a debate on foreign affairs in the House of Lords on Tuesday, he said that despite the UK pushing for more aid to get into Gaza, the amount that had reached the territory in February was just half that of the previous month.

As the “occupying power”, Lord Cameron said Israel was “responsible” and that this had consequences under international humanitarian law.

“International law states that an occupying power has a duty to ensure food and medical supplies to the population under its control “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”.

Cameron told peers: “We’ve had a whole set of things we’ve asked the Israelis to do, but I have to report that the amount of aid they got in in February was about half what got in in January. So patience needs to run very thin, and a whole series of warnings need to be given starting with the meeting I have with Minister Gantz when he visits the UK tomorrow.”

The foreign secretary meets with Benny Gantz, a retired general and Israeli cabinet minister con Wednesday.

Lord Cameron told peers that “patience needs to run very thin” with Israel.

He also said there was “dreadful suffering” in Gaza, with people dying of hunger and preventable disease.

A Channel 13 poll this week showed that Gantz, a former defence minister and chair of Israel’s National Unity party, is likely to win 39 seats in an election, with Netanyahu securing 17.

Gantz has reportedly said in the US that Israel would be forced to enter Rafah in order to topple Hamas.

“Ending the war without acting in Rafah is like sending firefighters to extinguish only 80% of the fire,” he reportedly told US officials, having met with granted meetings with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Gantz’s visit to Washington and London has angered Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who says he was not consulted about it.