© EPA-EFE/JAMES ROSS Streeting expressed concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and called on the Israeli president to take responsibility.
Health Minister Wes Streeting said on September 9 that the Netanyahu government's policy on the Gaza war “reduces Israel to the status of an exile”, ahead of Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog's visit to the UK.
According to his office, the Duke intends to visit the UK this week “to express solidarity with the Jewish community, which is experiencing violent attacks and a wave of anti-Semitism,” writes Politico.
But Streeting, who narrowly retained his north London constituency last year by defeating a pro-Palestinian candidate, said the Israeli president must bear responsibility for the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“He must answer the charges of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide leveled against the Israeli government. He must explain how, with so much evidence of atrocities committed by the Israeli army, he can continue to claim that the IDF is the most moral army in the world,” Streeting said.
The Minister of Health stressed that while Hamas's attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 “united the world in condemnation,” they cannot be “responded to with the level of loss and suffering of innocent civilians that we see in Gaza.”
“This Israeli government is driving Israel into exile and increasingly isolating it on the international stage,” Streeting added.
As a reminder, Britain does not consider Israel's actions in Gaza to be genocide. The British government's position is that questions of genocide should be determined by the courts.
