The President of Israel is expected to address accusations of war crimes during his visit to the UK to meet with senior Cabinet minister Keir Starmer, according to Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Streeting urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to clarify how the Israeli government plans to achieve its goals in Gaza without resorting to actions that could be classified as genocide. While the UK government has refrained from directly accusing Israel of genocide, it emphasized that it has not determined whether Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration is carrying out actions with the specific intent to destroy a particular group.
Streeting expressed the need for President Herzog to respond to the allegations of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide attributed to the Israeli government. He highlighted the importance of addressing the evidence of atrocities committed by the Israeli army and questioned the assertion that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are the most ethical military force globally.
Moreover, Streeting shared distressing accounts from British doctors who had worked in Gaza, detailing severe restrictions on essential supplies, including food, even for infants. In a separate development, Hamas condemned the attacks on Israel in October 2023 as barbaric, immoral, and inhumane. Hamas criticized the disproportionate civilian casualties and suffering in Gaza, as well as the reported acts of terrorism by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.