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20-12-2023
LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday too many civilian lives had been lost in the Israel-Hamas conflict and he repeated his call for a “sustainable ceasefire” to allow the release of hostages.
Sunak’s spokesman said a sustainable ceasefire was one that could last but he added that Britain was not advocating a general and immediate ceasefire.
With intense ground fighting having expanded this month across the Gaza Strip and a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, some leaders have begun to toughen their language over the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths.
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel was losing support over its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, should change strategy.
Sunak on Monday again said Britain believed Israel had the right to defend itself following the Hamas attack on southern Israel in October that triggered the conflict but “it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law,” he told reporters in Scotland.
“It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost. And that’s why we’ve been consistent…in calling for a sustainable ceasefire, whereby hostages are released, rockets stop being fired into Israel by Hamas and we continue to get more aid in.”
Britain abstained in a vote last week in the United Nations General Assembly that overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Sunak’s spokesman said on Monday: “Right now we want to see immediate humanitarian pauses and we want them to lead to a sustainable ceasefire as soon as possible.”
“We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward.”
Earlier, a US security envoy discussed with Israeli officials on Thursday how to better protect civilians during their war against Hamas in Gaza and President Joe Biden appealed for lives in the Palestinian territory to be saved.
Israel pounded the 25-mile (40-kilometer) length of Gaza, killing families in their homes as the more than two-month-old conflict raged across the entire enclave, causing a humanitarian catastrophe with little end in sight.
“It will last more than several months – but we will win and we will destroy them,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan said in an Israeli TV interview that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about when Israel will shift from high-intensity military operations to a more precise, more targeted phase.
Sullivan did not provide a specific timeline or elaborate on what such operations would look like, although he said Israel was expected to continue its military campaign for some time. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
