Cameron sets out commitment to do everything possible to get aid into Gaza
Lord David Cameron also warned Israel not to undermine the long-term prospect of a two-state solution to the dispute with the Palestinians.
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Your support makes all the difference.Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said “everything that can be done must be done” to get aid into Gaza, including the possibility of using British ships to bring supplies by sea.
The former prime minister, on an official visit to Egpyt, said he wanted to see the United Nations Security Council reach consensus on a resolution on humanitarian relief.
Lord Cameron said the UK was “pushing very hard” to ensure aid supplies reach Gaza, both through the reopened Kerem Shalom border crossing and possibly by sea.
He said: “Are there opportunities for aid to come from Cyprus in British ships to be delivered to Gaza? We’re working on that.
“Everything that can be done, must be done to get aid into Gaza to help people in the desperate situation they are in.”
At the UN in New York, the US is working intensively to find a compromise resolution it will not veto on the supply of aid.
The US has been struggling to change the text’s references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war.
Another sticking point is the inspection of aid trucks into Gaza to ensure they are only carrying humanitarian goods, with Israel – and by extension its ally the US – likely to oppose the draft resolution’s call for the UN to be given that role.
At a press conference with his counterpart in Cairo, Lord Cameron said: “We are very keen to see consensus arrived at so that Security Council resolution – which is really all about aid and the delivery of aid, and the need to upscale the aid and the need for it to get through in far bigger numbers – that can go through. Talks continue and Britain will do what it can to try and build that consensus in New York at the Security Council.”
Lord Cameron again restated the UK’s call for Israel to respect international humanitarian law as it continues its military offensive in Gaza.
He also said Benjamin Netanyahu’s government must not do anything to jeopardise the long-term prospect of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, rejected a two-state solution in an interview with Sky News earlier this month.
Lord Cameron said: “We’ve been very clear with Israel, there can be no permanent occupation of Gaza, no displacement of people from Gaza, no diminution of the size of the Palestinian territories.
“All of those things would be wrong and we’ve made that very clear. Obviously, it is difficult to get from where we are now to where we want to be.
“But sometimes you have to use moments of crisis as potential moments of opportunity.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also restated his commitment to a two-state solution.
“We are strongly in favour of a two-state solution. And that has to be something which international partners are very, very clear about and it’s not in the gift of Israel,” he said.