UK faces pressure to stop selling weapons to Israel after aid workers killed
The three main British opposition parties and some lawmakers in the governing party have urged the British government to consider suspending arms sales.
The Liberal Democrats called for arms exports to Israel to be suspended, while the Scottish National Party also backed that move and said parliament should be recalled from its Easter break to discuss the crisis.
The main opposition Labour Party, who polls suggest will form the next government later this year, adopted a nuanced approach, saying the government should suspend arms sales if lawyers have found Israel had broken international law.
Most UK voters support ban on arms exports to Israel: Poll
A survey conducted by polling firm YouGov found that 56 percent of all voters in the United Kingdom are in favour of a ban on sending weapons to Israel, including spare parts for weapons systems.
Fifty-nine percent of voters say that Israel is violating human rights in Gaza, the poll also found.
Among the UK’s different political parties, an overwhelming 71 percent of Labour voters favour an arms export ban, while 70 percent of Liberal Democrat voters agree. As for Conservative Party voters, 38 percent support the ban, still higher than the 36 percent who do not.
This poll was conducted before an Israeli attack killed seven aid workers of World Central Kitchen in Deir el-Balah.
UN suspend aid movements at night in Gaza
Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has announced that the UN has suspended movements at night in the Gaza Strip for at least 48 hours to evaluate security issues. The suspension, which began on Tuesday, follows Israel’s killing of seven aid workers in the enclave.
The World Food Programme is continuing operations during the day, including daily efforts to send convoys to the north of Gaza “where people are dying,” Dujarric said.
“As famine closes in we need humanitarian staff and supplies to be able to move freely and safely across the Gaza Strip,” he told reporters.
Undelivered Gaza aid returned to Cyprus
World Central Kitchen founder says Israel targeted his aid workers ‘systematically’
Celebrity chef and founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK) Jose Andres says an Israeli attack that killed seven of the NGO’s food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them “systematically, car by car”.
Speaking in a video interview with Reuters news agency, Andres said the WCK charity group had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements.
This was not a “bad luck situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres said. “Even if we were not in coordination with the [Israeli army], no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.”
Andres said he was supposed to be with his team but for various reasons “wasn’t able to go back again to Gaza”
