UK PM Sunak pressured by lawmakers to suspend arms sales to Israel
Members of Parliament from multiple parties claimed that Britain should end arms supply to Israel based on their perception that Israel was not following humanitarian law.
Politicians from the Liberal Democrats Party and the Scottish National Party as well as a former UK national security adviser are pressuring United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to suspend arms sales to Israel, British media reported on Wednesday.
The pressure came after an Israeli airstrike mistakenly killed seven aid workers in Gaza, including some British nationals.
Last week, before the strike, a group of more than 130 Members of Parliament from multiple parties, and peers, reportedly wrote to Foreign Secretary David Cameron calling for an immediate suspension of export licenses for arms sales to Israel.
Speaking about the incident to The Sun, Sunak said that the UK was “very careful” when it came to licensing weapons and he called for an independent investigation into the strike.
Describing the deaths as "an awful tragedy," Sunak said the UK wanted to see "a dramatic increase in the amount of aid getting into Gaza."
Sunak insisted that the UK government had been “consistently clear” that Israel must follow international humanitarian law.
"We've always had a very careful export licensing regime that we adhere to. There are a set of rules, regulations, and procedures that we'll always follow,” Sunak said. "And I've been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that whilst of course we defend Israel's right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with humanitarian law, protect civilian lives, get more aid into Gaza."
Arms sales to Israel
Business Minister Greg Hands claimed that UK arms exports to Israel were worth £42 million (Approximately NIS 197 million) last year, which he estimated represented 0.02% of Israel's military imports, BBC News reported.
Sir Alan Duncan, an ex-Conservative Member of Parliament and former Foreign Office minister, wrote in The Independent that further arms sales to Israel "cannot be justified."
Taking the same stance, Conservative MP Paul Bristow said that British-made weapons being used in Gaza "turns the stomach," and the deaths of British aid workers "must be a line in the sand."
"If it says there is a clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it's time to suspend the sale of those arms," affirmed shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey told UK Channel 4 News that he thought “now was the time to end [the] British export of arms to Israel.
“It does look like Israel has broken humanitarian law.”
Davey also accused Israel of failing to listen to international pressure when it came to employing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, despite Hamas rejecting numerous ceasefire agreements proposed by multiple countries.
Israeli officials have also repeatedly assured that humanitarian aid was being allowed into Gaza, however Hamas were preventing it from reaching civilians; manufacturing a humanitarian crisis.
According to The Guardian on Thursday, Conservative peer Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill's grandson, said it was “probably time" that the UK halt sending arms to Israel.
He also said that Israel had the right to attack Hamas.
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