British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday to meet with top Israeli leaders and express solidarity.
Sunak plans to meet with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog to express condolences for the deaths in Israel and the Gaza Strip caused by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Every civilian death is a tragedy. And too many lives have been lost following Hamas’ horrific act of terror.
The British leader had earlier condemned the attack on a hospital in Gaza that left hundreds dead through a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter:
“We are all shocked by the scenes at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Our intelligence services are rapidly analysing the evidence to independently establish the facts.”
The international community has been vigorously calling for an immediate ceasefire and sit down at the negotiating table to resolve the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tal Heinrich, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, claimed on Tuesday that the IDF “does not target hospitals.”
We only target Hamas strongholds, arms depots, and terror targets.
The head of Gaza’s civil defence told Al Jazeera television that more than 300 people had been killed in the Gaza hospital bombing.
Sunak expressed support for the Jewish community, calling the attack “an existential strike at the very idea of Israel as a safe homeland for the Jewish people.”
The Prime Minister stated that Hamas was using “innocent Palestinian people as human shields,” and that the UK mourned the loss of all innocent lives lost as a result of the ongoing terror.
“We must support the Palestinian people because they are victims of Hamas too […] Hamas simply does not stand for the future that the Palestinians want, and they seek to put the Palestinian people in harm’s way. So we must ensure humanitarian support urgently reaches civilians in Gaza. This requires Egypt and Israel to allow the aid that is so badly needed.”
