The Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Israeli President Isaac Herzog must explain how he believes the Israeli government can achieve its aim in Gaza ‘without genocide’
The Israeli President needs to answer for alleged war crimes committed by his country when he visits the UK to meet with Keir Starmer, a senior Cabinet minister has said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Isaac Herzog must explain how he believes the Israeli government can achieve its aim in Gaza “ without genocide ”. The UK government has stopped short of accusing Israel of genocide, saying it has not concluded that Benjamin Netanyahu ’s government is acting with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”, the legal definition for the crime.
Ahead of the the meeting, Mr Streeting told Times Radio: “When the president of the State of Israel comes to London this week, I think he needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel.
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“I think he needs to explain how, when we have seen so much evidence of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Israeli army, how he can possibly claim that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is the most moral army in the world.
“I think he should explain that, if it is not the intent of the government of Israel to perpetrate genocide or ethnic cleansing, how on earth does he think his Israeli government is going to achieve its stated aim of clearing Palestinians out of Gaza without the war crimes, without ethnic cleansing, or even without genocide?”
The Health Secretary said he had spoken last week to British doctors who had worked in Gaza and they “provided me with the most harrowing eyewitness testimony, one saying for weeks no food was allowed into Gaza, not even for babies”.
Mr Hamas also criticised the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023 as“barbaric”, “immoral” and “inhumane”.
He said: “Not a single one of those atrocities and injustices committed on October 7 can possibly be answered with a level of civilian, innocent loss and suffering that we’re seeing in Gaza, or indeed Israeli settler terrorism being perpetrated in the West Bank.”
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