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- Enclave facing ‘terrible humanitarian situation,’ David Cameron says
- Review underway into legality of Israel’s military action, minister says
LONDON: The UK foreign secretary on Friday called on Israel to open more crossings for aid to be delivered into Gaza amid a “terrible humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian enclave.
Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4 “World at One” program, David Cameron said it was frustrating that Israel was not allowing more aid into the territory.
“We need 500 trucks a day or more going into Gaza,” he said. “In the last five days, we’ve been averaging 123.”
More than 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israel’s military action against Hamas, launched after the militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead.
Countries have been airdropping aid into Gaza to stave off a growing risk of starvation within the enclave, where the UN estimates a quarter of the population is on the brink of famine.
“(Delivery shortages) can be fixed if Israel opens more crossing points, if they allow more UN staff into Gaza to help process the aid and get it round the different bits of Gaza,” Cameron said.
“And they could also do things like full resumption of the water and the electricity that goes into north and south Gaza.
“We’ve set out these points repeatedly and it’s incredibly frustrating that these things haven’t happened when you think of the terrible humanitarian situation.”
Israel has denied blocking aid deliveries to Gaza and has blamed failures in its distribution on aid organizations.
Cameron said the UK would join its allies in creating a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza, but was skeptical about the speed with which a US-led plan to build a temporary harbor could deliver aid to those suffering.
“It’s going to take time to build, so the crucial thing is today the Israelis must confirm that they’ll open the port at Ashdod.”
The foreign secretary added that a review into whether Israel’s actions were legal under international humanitarian law would be carried out in the “coming days,” which would lead to a decision on British arms sales to the country.
“In terms of export licensing, that depends on the judgment that we make about international humanitarian law and that judgment is undergoing at the moment,” he said.
“I’ve set out very clearly in Parliament and elsewhere the processes we have to go through and we’re going through them now.”