Rishi Sunak offers Israel UK support as he insists terrorism 'will not prevail'
Rishi Sunak offered UK support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tonight after at least 700 Israelis were killed in a series of terrorist attacks waged by Hamas.
Speaking at his country retreat Chequers, the British PM said: "We will do everything that we can to help. Terrorism will not prevail." The Conservative leader said the UK “for a long time has been one of Israel's strongest allies in supporting its right to self-defence and indeed providing the kinds of equipment that Israel has used to defend itself from these appalling attacks over the past 36 hours”.
He added: "We will continue to do everything that we can to help. When I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu... I assured him of that support and said that the UK stood ready to provide that support, whether that's diplomatic or security support.”
Mr Sunak admitted it was “a dangerous and fast-moving situation on the ground” in Israel. "I know that there will be families who are anxious about their loved ones,” he said. "I want to reassure them that the Foreign Office and the Government here is in close contact with our Israeli counterpart to establish the status of any British nationals on the ground.”
Following the two leaders’ phone call, a No10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister outlined the diplomatic work the UK is doing to ensure the world speaks with one voice in opposition to these appalling attacks. Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the Prime Minister for the UK's support. The Prime Minister also stressed his commitment to ensuring the Jewish community in the UK feels safe and secure at this time. The leaders agreed to stay in close contact as the situation develops."
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Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Israel to be “proportionate” as it retaliates for terror attacks unleashed by Hamas that left at least 600 people dead. Speaking at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, he spoke of the “horrors” unfolding in Israel and Gaza. He said the attacks were a “very sad and worrying backdrop” to the party’s annual get-together.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke at a fringe event Labour's conference in Liverpool (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)The frontbencher told a Tony Blair Institute for Global Change fringe event: “It has been hugely important to be clear that Israel has a right to self-defence and defend itself against terrorism, to remind people that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation. The scenes of young people, who are British nationals, likely missing, some having lost their lives, of all the children, of the elderly, of children, of women being taken, shot, some held as hostages is deeply, deeply worrying.”
Fire and smoke rises above a building during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City (AFP via Getty Images)He called for Israel’s response to be “targeted, to be proportionate and to be within international law”. He added: “I am absolutely clear that I stand with the people of Israel in their tremendous fight at this moment.”
Mr Lammy said if such violence was waged against British people in UK towns and cities, Britain would be at war. “Here in the united Kingdom, if we had people crossing our border overnight, dragging people out of our country, killing others, particularly young people, at a rave and firing rockets into London, Brighton, Exeter, we would be approaching that on a war footing,” he told delegates. “It would be incredibly serious and we would do what we felt it took, within international law.”
Earlier, Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely said Israelis had been “brutally barbarically murdered in cold blood by Hamas terrorists that planned in the most calculated way to invade Israel from the air, from the ground, and from the sea, and created the hardest day Israelis ever experienced in their lifetime”.
Speaking from Israel, she told Sky News: “I was there. I experienced many terror attacks; this is not another terror attack. This is a situation where people couldn't be safe in their own homes - cities were invaded. We're talking about terrorists going from one house to another and brutally targeting children.”
A top Cabinet Minister backed Israel to defend itself against Hamas attacks. "We support their right of self-defence and will support them in whatever they decide to do to defend their country against terrorist attacks," Transport Secretary Mark Harper told the BBC.
"My own department is working closely with British airlines that fly in that part of the world to make sure they've all the information they have to make sure they can continue to keep their passengers safe."
Speaking in Liverpool, Keir Starmer insisted there was "no justification" for the attacks and accused Hamas of deliberately derailing any hopes of a peace deal. He said: "This is an appalling attack on Israel, a terrorist attack, for which there is no justification. The perpetrators of this have deliberately pushed back the prospect of peace agreements."
He said he spoke to the leader of the Israeli Labour party, Merav Michaeli, on Saturday night. "As we were on the phone the siren went off and she had to go down into her shelter, taking her papers with her," he said. "It's an appalling act of terrorism, it needs to be called out across the world.”
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Some senior Labour figures welcomed Monday's planned protest outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, London, saying the demonstration in support of the Palestinians meant there would be “fewer Pally flags in Liverpool”.
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