UK must not look away from Gaza genocide, Amnesty warns
Israel's blockade and military campaign have caused widespread hunger and raised the risk of famine in the country. Now, Israel is reportedly set to pursue the military campaign for "weeks, not days," according to multiple Israeli and US sources.
READ MORE: 'It's a trap': 8 killed by Israeli soldiers in shooting at Gaza aid site
Sacha Deshmukh, the chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said it was "crucial" that Keir Starmer's government "do not get distracted" by the escalating tensions from the reality in Gaza.
Deshmukh said: 'It is crucial that Israel's attacks on Iran do not distract the UK Government from action it must take to stop Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, rampant state-backed settler attacks in the West Bank, and Israel's cruel system of apartheid.
"These violations demand that States, including the UK, focus immediately on the urgent need for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza and fast-track their diplomatic efforts to help end Israel's decades-long illegal occupation.'
Israeli officials have claimed the country's initial strikes were an act of self-defence and argued Iran had rejected diplomatic efforts to ease tensions.
Israel said the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building a nuclear weapon, although experts and the US government have assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that if the Israeli strikes on Iran stop, then 'our responses will also stop'.
First Minister John Swinney also urged the UK Government to "de-escalate" the "dangerous situation".
READ MORE: UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Israel as Iran strikes escalate
Swinney said: 'The situation in Gaza and the wider Middle East is deeply concerning. The international community - including the UK Government - must do all it can to de-escalate this dangerous situation.
"Further escalation will result in even greater devastation and stability across the region is of paramount importance to us all.'
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said that Israel's attacks were "a clear attempt to escalate the conflict and provoke a much wider war" in the region, and accused the Israeli government of "flooding the media with images of their own choosing, while blocking media access to Gaza to prevent the world from seeing the atrocities they are committing".
'Even a former Israeli Prime Minister has called Netanyahu's government a gang of thugs, and every day they find new ways to prove him right," Harvie said.
'The UK should immediately withdraw all support for this violent rogue state, and work with other countries to have them held accountable for their war crimes.'
Harvie added: 'The Scottish Greens have long called for a lasting ceasefire and an end to the UK's active participation in the ongoing genocide of Gaza. Keir Starmer must end the UK's involvement in conflict rising between the state of Israel and other nations.'
"Israel's declaration of war on Iran is intended to bring war to the entire Middle East," national convenor of the Stop the War Coalition Lindsey German told The National.
"Netanyahu is already bombing five countries and we can only assume those conflicts will escalate. None of this would be possible without the support of the British and US governments.
"We've been demanding for months that the UK stops arming Israel, stops the genocide, stops using the Akrotiri RAF base to attack Gaza. Now Starmer's sending jets to the region, clearly prepared to support and enable further war crimes, without so much as putting it to a vote in Parliament.
"It's absolutely abhorrent and removes any prospect of the de-escalation he so weakly called for."
READ MORE: David Pratt: A perilous 'game' – Israel attacks, Iran bleeds, and America plays God
Asked whether the UK would come to Israel's aid if asked, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'We have, in the past, supported Israel when there have been missiles coming in.
'I'm not going to comment on what might happen in the future, but so far, we haven't been involved, and we're sending in assets to both protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies.'
Pushed again on whether the UK would deploy assets in support of Israel if asked, she said: 'What we've done in the past (…) is help protect Israel from incoming strikes.
'So a defensive activity.'
She added: 'I'm not going to rule anything out at this stage (…) it's a fast moving situation, a very volatile situation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
British steelmakers boosted by change to EU tariffs
The EU has agreed to more than double the UK's tariff-free quota for certain steel products in a move the Government described as a 'direct win' from Sir Keir Starmer's deal with the bloc earlier this year. At May's UK-EU summit, Sir Keir and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen agreed to restore Britain's steel quotas to historic levels after they were slashed in March. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the announcement was 'yet another positive step forward for the UK steel sector' that would give producers 'certainty'. The agreement comes at a difficult time for the industry, which continues to face 25% tariffs on exports to the US. An agreement with President Donald Trump to effectively reduce those tariffs to zero is yet to come into effect, but Britain has been protected from the 50% tariff Mr Trump imposed on steel from the rest of the world last month. UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said Friday's change was 'excellent news' for the sector that had been 'plagued by problems' in exporting steel to the EU. He added: 'The quota will restore historic trade flows and is good news for both UK steelmakers and their EU customers.' The decision means the UK can export 27,000 tonnes of 'category 17' steel – which includes angles and sections of steel – to the EU each quarter without paying tariffs. The figure had been cut to 10,000 tonnes after the EU introduced a cap intended to prevent a single exporter dominating the market. In total, the UK exports around 2.4 million tonnes of steel to the EU, worth nearly £3 billion and accounting for 75% of British steel exports. Ministers expect the change to help protect jobs in the industry, which has been a priority for the Labour Government since coming to power. In April, the Government used an almost unprecedented weekend recall of Parliament to take control of British Steel to prevent the shutdown of its blast furnaces and maintain the UK's primary steel-making capacity. British Steel's interim chief operating officer Lisa Coulson said: 'The removal of EU tariffs on British-made steel is a significant boost to our business. 'The EU is an important market to us, particularly for the products our highly skilled colleagues manufacture in Scunthorpe, Teesside, and Skinningrove.' But Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith described the quota as 'tiny' and 'embarrassing from a Government which has nothing to show on removing the US tariffs on steel which the PM claimed to have delivered back in May'. He added: 'It's a paltry return for giving up 12 years of fishing rights and tying the energy costs of every business to a higher cost EU emissions regime over which the UK will have no say. 'When Labour nationalised British Steel we said they had no plan. This government by press release shows we were right.'
Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
British steelmakers boosted by change to EU tariffs
The EU has agreed to more than double the UK's tariff-free quota for certain steel products in a move the Government described as a 'direct win' from Sir Keir Starmer's deal with the bloc earlier this year. At May's UK-EU summit, Sir Keir and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen agreed to restore Britain's steel quotas to historic levels after they were slashed in March. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the announcement was 'yet another positive step forward for the UK steel sector' that would give producers 'certainty'. The agreement comes at a difficult time for the industry, which continues to face 25% tariffs on exports to the US. An agreement with President Donald Trump to effectively reduce those tariffs to zero is yet to come into effect, but Britain has been protected from the 50% tariff Mr Trump imposed on steel from the rest of the world last month. UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said Friday's change was 'excellent news' for the sector that had been 'plagued by problems' in exporting steel to the EU. He added: 'The quota will restore historic trade flows and is good news for both UK steelmakers and their EU customers.' The decision means the UK can export 27,000 tonnes of 'category 17' steel – which includes angles and sections of steel – to the EU each quarter without paying tariffs. The figure had been cut to 10,000 tonnes after the EU introduced a cap intended to prevent a single exporter dominating the market. In total, the UK exports around 2.4 million tonnes of steel to the EU, worth nearly £3 billion and accounting for 75% of British steel exports. Ministers expect the change to help protect jobs in the industry, which has been a priority for the Labour Government since coming to power. In April, the Government used an almost unprecedented weekend recall of Parliament to take control of British Steel to prevent the shutdown of its blast furnaces and maintain the UK's primary steel-making capacity. British Steel's interim chief operating officer Lisa Coulson said: 'The removal of EU tariffs on British-made steel is a significant boost to our business. 'The EU is an important market to us, particularly for the products our highly skilled colleagues manufacture in Scunthorpe, Teesside, and Skinningrove.' But Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith described the quota as 'tiny' and 'embarrassing from a Government which has nothing to show on removing the US tariffs on steel which the PM claimed to have delivered back in May'. He added: 'It's a paltry return for giving up 12 years of fishing rights and tying the energy costs of every business to a higher cost EU emissions regime over which the UK will have no say. 'When Labour nationalised British Steel we said they had no plan. This government by press release shows we were right.'
Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
British steelmakers boosted by change to EU tariffs
The EU has agreed to more than double the UK's tariff-free quota for certain steel products in a move the Government described as a 'direct win' from Sir Keir Starmer's deal with the bloc earlier this year. At May's UK-EU summit, Sir Keir and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen agreed to restore Britain's steel quotas to historic levels after they were slashed in March. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the announcement was 'yet another positive step forward for the UK steel sector' that would give producers 'certainty'. The agreement comes at a difficult time for the industry, which continues to face 25% tariffs on exports to the US. An agreement with President Donald Trump to effectively reduce those tariffs to zero is yet to come into effect, but Britain has been protected from the 50% tariff Mr Trump imposed on steel from the rest of the world last month. UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said Friday's change was 'excellent news' for the sector that had been 'plagued by problems' in exporting steel to the EU. He added: 'The quota will restore historic trade flows and is good news for both UK steelmakers and their EU customers.' The decision means the UK can export 27,000 tonnes of 'category 17' steel – which includes angles and sections of steel – to the EU each quarter without paying tariffs. The figure had been cut to 10,000 tonnes after the EU introduced a cap intended to prevent a single exporter dominating the market. In total, the UK exports around 2.4 million tonnes of steel to the EU, worth nearly £3 billion and accounting for 75% of British steel exports. Ministers expect the change to help protect jobs in the industry, which has been a priority for the Labour Government since coming to power. In April, the Government used an almost unprecedented weekend recall of Parliament to take control of British Steel to prevent the shutdown of its blast furnaces and maintain the UK's primary steel-making capacity. British Steel's interim chief operating officer Lisa Coulson said: 'The removal of EU tariffs on British-made steel is a significant boost to our business. 'The EU is an important market to us, particularly for the products our highly skilled colleagues manufacture in Scunthorpe, Teesside, and Skinningrove.' But Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith described the quota as 'tiny' and 'embarrassing from a Government which has nothing to show on removing the US tariffs on steel which the PM claimed to have delivered back in May'. He added: 'It's a paltry return for giving up 12 years of fishing rights and tying the energy costs of every business to a higher cost EU emissions regime over which the UK will have no say. 'When Labour nationalised British Steel we said they had no plan. This government by press release shows we were right.'
