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Britain will not offer “carte blanche” approval to Israel, which has made “big mistakes” in Gaza, but the nation is waging a legitimate war and is holding itself to higher standards than Hamas, the British Deputy Prime Minister.
Oliver Dowden’s speech on Sunday, on the six-month anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the Gaza offensive, came after British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron warned that Britain’s support for Israel “was not unconditional.”
“Israel is legitimately able to receive arms exports from us and our advice in this regard has not changed. Of course we are concerned about the way Israel is behaving. That’s why we raised questions. . . But this is in the context of a legitimate conflict that Israel is waging,” Dowden told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
The opposition Labor Party has been pressuring Cameron to answer questions from MPs in the House of Commons about the legality of the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy on Sunday accused Cameron of “dodging scrutiny of arms sales” from the elected house, renewing calls for the government to publish its internal legal advice on the issue.
The government’s stance towards Israel appears to have hardened after an Israeli military attack on an aid convoy in the Strip killed seven aid workers, including three Britons, earlier this week.
The Israeli army said its soldiers made a “serious mistake” by violating operational procedures and fired two senior officers.
Cameron said in an article for the Sunday Times that there was “no doubt who is to blame” for the “tragic and avoidable” killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers.
The Foreign Minister also stressed the importance of respecting international law and warned Israel: “This must never happen again.”
However, the UK has not signaled that it will restrict or suspend arms export licenses to Israel.
Dowden said the government’s legal advice that Israel was acting within international law had not changed, but indicated that Britain would ban arms sales to the nation if the assessment found that Israel had breached the rules.
He added: “We will of course act in accordance with our obligations under the law regarding arms sales. . . If we cannot do it legally in accordance with the law, obviously we will not provide those weapons.”
Defending the government’s decision not to publish its internal legal assessment of Israel’s activities, Dowden said Cameron’s formal advice to the Economic Affairs Minister on the issue “has not changed”.
Speaking earlier on Sky News, the deputy prime minister echoed Cameron’s message that Britain does not offer unconditional support for Israel’s conduct, saying: “We are not giving carte blanche and we are having robust conversations with Israel.”
Dowden also stressed that people should remember the “trauma” Israel is facing and that the nation is judged by different criteria than the “terrorist organization Hamas,” which is a “very difficult enemy.”
“Of course, Israel has made mistakes, and they have made big mistakes, and we should hold them accountable for that, but we are holding them to a very high standard,” he said.
Lammy told Sky News he had “serious concerns about a breach of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.
Over the weekend the UK government announced it would deploy a Royal Navy ship to help transport aid to Gaza as part of an international humanitarian shipping corridor in the Cyprus Strip, which is expected to be operational in early May.
Announcing new UK funding of £9.7m for supplies, equipment and expertise to support the maritime aid route, Cameron said: “The situation in Gaza is dire and the prospect of famine is real. We remain committed to providing aid to those who so desperately need it.”