UK ban on arms sales to Israel would strengthen Hamas, Cameron says

The Foreign Secretary told the media in an interview that the UK’s embargo on arms sales to Israel would only be in the interest of Hamas. 

Lord Cameron said that although he does not support a large-scale ground offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah, the UK will not follow the US and stop some arms sales. 

He stressed that it is less than 1% that the United Kingdom supplies to the arms of Israel, and he also advised Israel to provide more safety to the civilians and allow humanitarian relief to pass through. 

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth disagreed with UK-manufactured arms being used in the strikes in Rafah. 

US President Joe Biden recently broke one of the world’s most critical strategic relations by announcing that the US would not supply weapons if Israel went ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in this southern Gaza town. Every fourth person is homeless there. 

The UN stated that more than 80,000 people escaped from Rafah since Monday, with Israeli tanks reportedly gathered near populated areas. 

Contrary to the US and other allied warnings that such a step could end up with mass casualties amongst civilians and a humanitarian crisis, Israel says that the operation in Rafah will continue. 

 Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to eliminate the Hamas battalion bases, which he says are nesting in Rafah. 

On Sunday, Lord Cameron spoke to Laura Kuenssberg and said that he would not support a full-scale offensive in Rafah until he saw Israel’s plan to protect civilians. 

Conversely, his perspective was that the UK, as a large state supplier of weapons, was in a different situation from the US. 

The UK government is not directly selling weapons to Israel, but it licenses arms transfer to companies based on legal advice. On the contrary, the US resorts to less strict government-to-government deals to sell arms. 

Lord Cameron added that the last time he faced the pressure to halt weapons sales to Israel was when the aid workers were killed in an air strike in Gaza, an attack which took the lives of three Britians; three days later, there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel.  

He cautioned that if the UK changes its attitude towards arms exports, Hamas will become more robust, and a hostage deal will be less likely. 

He focused on the importance of providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza. 

On Friday, the US State Department presented an inquiry that suggested that Israel might have used weapons from the US inventory in contradiction to international humanitarian law while fighting in Gaza. 

Lord Cameron said that Israel’s performance in allowing humanitarian aid into the country is not good enough.

He argued that the UK has a different stance and has nothing to do with stopping arms deals. 

He stressed the need to use British leverage to materialize results favoring people, such as returning captives home, including UK citizens. 

Lord Cameron said that the UK should not take the risk of British troops on the ground in Gaza. 

This comes after the previous month’s claims by the authorities that British troops would be sent to Gaza to help with the distribution of aid through the recent sea route. 

Labour MP Zarah Sultana, in turn, pointed out the government’s hypocrisy when delivering weapons to Israel. 

The government’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria prohibits arms sales “if there is proof that the items are being used to facilitate or undergo a severe violation of international humanitarian law.  “

Ms.  Sultana contended that it was not the magnitude of arms sales to Israel that mattered. 

We are not only condoning but very well facilitating and abetting these war crimes that are being committed daily. 

The direction of work concerning the area has transformed after the series of attacks on October 7 by Hamas that ended with a full-scale combat operation of the Israeli soldiers in Gaza. 

Since then, over 35,000 people have been killed, and 78,000 others have been wounded in Gaza, as reported by the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. 

Last year, ten senior Labour members left the party’s front bench, dissatisfied with the party’s ceasefire demand. Instead, they backed a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid into the region. 

However, at the end of February, the Labour Party started to not only express its concern over the situation in Gaza but also to demand an “immediate ceasefire.” 

Mr.  Ashworth, a senior shadow minister, said that he does not want to see British-made weapons used in the invasion of Rafah. 

“A real face-off into Rafah is a calamity which utter description is beyond anything,” he warned. 

He requested that the government disclose the legal advice it has received concerning the arms sales to Israel.