David Cameron, UK Foreign Secretary, Pressures Netanyahu on Gaza Aid
Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, raised the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday to allow more channels for humanitarian relief to enter Gaza, according to British officials.
Mr. Cameron made the case during a private meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem, before traveling to the West Bank to meet the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Neither Mr. Cameron nor Mr. Netanyahu spoke after their meeting. Briefing journalists before it, British officials said the foreign secretary would urge the Israeli leader to allow more aid to flow into Gaza, where the mounting civilian death toll has become an acute source of concern in London.
Mr. Cameron’s Middle East tour, which will also include stops in Turkey and Qatar, came two days after Britain joined the United States in the latest round of airstrikes on sites controlled by Houthi militants in Yemen. American and British officials are trying to halt attacks by the Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, that have disrupted vital international sea lanes.
Mr. Cameron’s pleas to the Israelis, like those of President Biden and his aides, have not borne much fruit, and on Wednesday, he found a defiant Israeli leader, who along with much of the country was mourning the deaths of 24 Israel Defense Force soldiers in the Gazan city of Khan Younis.
“We will continue to fight determinedly to vanquish the brutal enemy we face,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a speech on Wednesday marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Israeli Knesset. “We will continue to safeguard our national revival.”
