United Kingdom: The foreign minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has expressed concern that Israel may have broken international law during its war on Gaza. Although Israel was deemed compliant, Mr. Cameron said there were still unanswered questions.
Mr. Cameron expressed deep concern about what he saw during the war in the besieged Palestine territory while speaking to the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
During a question-and-answer period with lawmakers, Cameron responded that Israel was “near to that” when asked if the country could be “vulnerable to a challenge” from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague regarding the proportionality of its actions.
The former prime minister acknowledged that some incidents had raised doubts about whether there had been any legal breaches, but he refrained from directly answering questions about whether he had received legal advice suggesting that Israel might have broken the law.
The UK has repeatedly stated that it supports Israel’s right to self-defence against Hamas and has backed Israel’s right to defend itself, but it has also urged the Israeli military to exercise restraint and adhere to international law when conducting its offensive in Gaza.
Mr. Cameron stated that the extent of the damage was so “great” that rebuilding Gaza would require “a giant effort.”
“We’re going to need as many people as possible. It will take more than any one country to do it,” Mr. Cameron said.
Additionally, he claimed to have seen statistics indicating that Hamas had lost “over 50 percent of their capability and capacity” to launch rockets into Israel.