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| Starmer calls Gaza City takeover plan wrong and urges Israel to reconsider | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| UK prime minister says occupation approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will only bring more bloodshed | |
| Middle East crisis – live updates | Middle East crisis – live updates |
| Keir Starmer has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider his plans to take over Gaza City and said the move would only bring more bloodshed. | |
| The British prime minister said Israel’s decision to escalate the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 22 months while pushing the territory into famine, was wrong and would do nothing to secure the release of Israeli hostages. | |
| Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City at a meeting which began on Thursday and ran through the night. The plan falls short of taking over the whole of Gaza as Netanyahu said he had intended before the meeting. | |
| Starmer said Israel and Hamas should de-escalate the conflict and agree to a ceasefire, and that the prospect of a negotiated two-state solution was “vanishing before our eyes” without the two sides engaging “engaging in good faith in negotiations”. | |
| “Every day the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and hostages taken by Hamas are being held in appalling and inhuman conditions. What we need is a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages by Hamas and a negotiated solution,” Starmer said. | |
| “Our message is clear: a diplomatic solution is possible, but both parties must step away from the path of destruction.” | |
| Several other countries, including Finland and Turkey, have criticised Israel’s announcement and called on its government to de-escalate the conflict. | |
| The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said it was increasingly clear that Netanyahu’s goal was “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. He urged Starmer to cease all arms exports to Israel and sanction Netanyahu and his cabinet. | |
| Miatta Fahnbulleh, an energy minister, told Sky News the Israeli government’s decision to take over Gaza City was wrong. | |
| “We think that it will risk escalating an already intolerable situation, and the consequence will be more bloodshed,” she said. “There’s no one that can see what is happening and unfolding in Gaza that isn’t horrified by it. | |
| “Our priority is, in order to try and get a ceasefire, we’ve got to get parties around the table. I know it feels incredibly hard given the current situation, but it has to be the priority.” | |
| Starmer has said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state before the UN general assembly in September if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire and a pathway towards a two-state solution. | |
| Before the meeting of his security cabinet, Netanyahu had set out a plan to take control over the whole of Gaza and eventually hand governance of the territory to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas. | |
| The plan announced on Friday morning stopped short of that after reservations from Israel’s top general who reportedly said it would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel’s army after nearly two years of war on various fronts. | |
| Many families of the hostages are also opposed, fearing further escalation will doom their loved ones. |