By Catherine Nicholls, CNN
(CNN) — The United Kingdom paused trade negotiations with Israel and sanctioned West Bank settlers as Britain’s top diplomat slammed Israel’s renewed military operation in Gaza as “morally unjustifiable” and “wholly disproportionate.”
The move comes a day after the UK, France and Canada threatened to take “concrete actions,” including targeted sanctions, if Israel does not halt the fresh offensive and continues to block aid from entering Gaza.
Since May 5, Israel has been conducting a new offensive in Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Monday that his country plans to “take control of the entire Gaza Strip.” Hundreds have been killed and an Israeli blockade has meant that no aid entered the strip for 11 weeks until Monday, when five trucks were allowed in — a tiny fraction of the 500 trucks that authorities say are required each day to sustain the population.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy stressed that the UK backed Israel’s right to defend itself after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, but said the conflict was “entering a dark new phase.”
“For 11 weeks Israeli forces have blockaded Gaza, leaving the World Food Programme without any – any – remaining stocks,” he said. “We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict. Netanyahu’s government is planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Tzipura Hotovely, was summoned over the Israeli offensive in Gaza, as well as Israeli settler violence and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Foreign Office statement added.
Lammy also told lawmakers Tuesday the UK government would sanction seven entities related to settler activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in October. “Here, too, we must do more. Today, we are therefore imposing sanctions on a further three individuals and four entities involved in the settler movement.”
Lammy added: “We will continue to act against those who are carrying out heinous abuses of human rights.”
Israel’s foreign ministry called the sanctions against the settlers “puzzling, unjustified, and particularly regrettable,” adding that “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in the fight for its existence and security against enemies seeking its destruction.”
“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and internal political considerations, the British government is willing to harm its own economy — that is its decision,” it said on the UK’s pausing of the trade negotiations.
Hundreds of thousands facing starvation
On top of the ongoing military offensive in Gaza, Israel’s monthslong blockade of aid has left one in five people in the enclave facing starvation as the entire territory edges closer to famine, according to the United Nations.
Israel has said that the blockade, along with its new military campaign, is intended to pressure Hamas to release hostages held in the strip. But many international organizations have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
The Israeli military announced Sunday it would allow a “basic amount of food” to enter Gaza as it launched its new major offensive in the strip. The reason, the military said, was the fact that a “starvation crisis” in Gaza would “jeopardize the operation.”
On Monday, five aid trucks entered Gaza, according to the Israeli agency that approves aid shipments into the region, a number that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called “totally insufficient.”
Earlier Tuesday, Israel gave its approval for the UN to send “around 100” trucks into the enclave, according to Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office.
Laerke said that he hoped that many, if not all, of the aid trucks could cross to a point into Gaza on Tuesday. Video from the Kerem Shalom crossing showed several trucks moving toward the Gaza side of the crossing while other trucks parked in the adjacent parking lot.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Eugenia Yosef, Abeer Salman, Jeremy Diamond, Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Khader Al Zaanoun, Tareq Al Hilou, Ivana Kottasová, and Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.
