Israel says 468 aid trucks moved into Gaza on Tuesday, but the United Nations has given lower figures and says many trucks only half full
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Rishi Sunak defended the UK’s decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel, saying “none of our closest allies” have stopped existing export licences but added Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to do more” to alleviate suffering in Gaza, reports the Press Association (PA).
Responding to a caller on his LBC phone-in interview, the prime minister said:
It was a shocking tragedy what happened to our veterans when they were selflessly carrying out aid missions into Gaza and I’ve also said repeatedly the situation in Gaza is increasingly intolerable, you know, the humanitarian suffering that people are experiencing isn’t right and prime minister Netanyahu needs to do more to alleviate that. I’ve made that very clear to him.”
There is no plan B for more than a million desperate people currently sheltering in Rafah – if Israel launches a ground offensive, then the scale of the crisis would be catastrophic.
Instead of planning for how aid agencies can operate in even more dangerous conditions, the UK government should be using every diplomatic and economic lever at its disposal to press Israel to not launch the offensive. This must include immediately stopping all arms sales to Israel.
