Member of Israeli war cabinet in London for discussions with Foreign Secretary and possibly Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on aid and ceasefire
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Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has arrived in London for what officials have called “tough talks” over Gaza’s humanitarian plight when he meets Foreign Secretary David Cameron and potentially Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Lord Cameron is expected to be “pretty robust” with the Israeli politician, who has flown in from Washington, over the grim situation facing Palestinians in Gaza where more than 30,700 have been killed.
“It’s going to be a pretty tough conversation,” a Whitehall source told media. “The Foreign Secretary is pretty robust when it comes to speaking his mind with his peers on issues that concern him.”
Given that the trip has not been sanctioned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the official admitted the situation was also “a bit awkward”.
The official emphasised that Lord Cameron would bring up the famine tipping point in Gaza and the need to urgently get sufficient humanitarian aid in.
Mr Gantz will then have further meetings with others before a potential brief conversation with Mr Sunak later in the day, where Gaza will also be discussed.
Lord Cameron has warned Israel that his patience was running “very thin” over the “dreadful suffering” in the territory where Israel had responsibilities as the occupying power in compliance with international law.
“We are facing a situation of dreadful suffering in Gaza,” Lord Cameron told the House of Lords late on Tuesday. “I spoke some weeks ago about the danger of this tipping into famine and the danger of illness tipping into disease; and we are now at that point.
“People are dying of hunger; people are dying of otherwise preventable diseases.”
Cameron told parliament that aid going to Gaza in February was around half the amount that was delivered in January.
While he will raise the issue with Mr Gantz, a former leader of Israel’s military, the Israeli will also be treated with respect as he is the man most likely succeed Mr Netanyahu if his far-right coalition collapses.
The leader of the centrist National Unity Party has seen his popularity rise in recent polls with him more favoured by three-to-one as prime minster over Mr Netanyahu, whose support has plummeted over his handling of the Israel-Gaza war.
Mr Gantz’s decision to defy the Mr Netanyahu and travel to Washington, where he met Vice President Kamala Harris, may very well hint at fissures in the fragile war cabinet.
“It means that Gantz has decided that there’s no point in hiding or camouflaging the deep differences that are in the war cabinet,” Dan Avnon, a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told media.
The visit adds to growing speculation that Israel’s closest allies are increasingly frustrated with Mr Netanyahu’s intransigence on the Gaza war, particularly regarding the desperate need to distribute more humanitarian aid in the strip.
President Joe Biden’s administration has come under increasing pressure at home and abroad to curtail Israel’s war efforts.
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