Canada, France and the UK on May 19th threatened to take “concrete” actions on Israel if it does not end its military assault on Gaza and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to the territory, Reuters reported.
The development represents a significant change in policy from the western nations, which were previously strong allies of Israel.
According to Middle East Eye, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back on May 19th via X. He said: “[t]he leaders in London, Ottowa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.”
On May 20th the BBC reported that a Palestinian paramedic said Israel’s air strikes killed at least 38 people within 30 minutes. The Hamas-run civil defence agency stated Israeli jets struck multiple sites across Gaza. The agency said the targets included an eastern Gaza school and a fuel station sheltering displaced families in Nuseirat camp.
The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a joint statement. The leaders called Israel’s widened military actions in Gaza “wholly disproportionate.”
The statement said: “We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions.” It also called on Israel to stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. It also said that such settlements “undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.”
The Western leaders further stated that the “[p]ermanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law,” according to BBC.
UN humanitarian relief chief Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat addressed the situation regarding humanitarian aid and approved deliveries to Gaza. He stated the trucks cleared to enter Gaza were a “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.”
BBC, Middle East Eye, Reuters
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