Rishi Sunak is on a collision course with Brussels as EU leaders push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – something the UK Prime Minister has admitted would be “difficult” for Britain to support in the current circumstances.
French Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne is pushing for what she called a “humanitarian truce” to allow aid agencies to bring more supplies into Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv today, meeting with the families of French citizens who were killed or held hostage before heading to talks with top Israeli officials.
He told Israel’s President Isaac Herzog that he came “to express our support and solidarity and share your pain” as well as to assure Israel it is “not left alone in the war against terrorism”.
Josep Borrell, who as High Representative is the EU’s top diplomat, has said a pause in the Israeli bombardment would permit more time to negotiate for the release of the hundreds of hostages captured by Hamas on October 7.
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Insiders have suggested EU27 leaders are ready to back such a pause – but, speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Sunak struck a very different tone.
He told MPs: “It is difficult to tell Israel to have a ceasefire when it is still facing rocket fire on an almost daily basis, and when its citizens are still being held hostage and it has suffered an appalling terrorist attack where it has a right to defend itself.”
Referring to last week’s explosion at a hospital in Gaza, Mr Sunak also warned against drawing hasty conclusions about who was to blame for such incidents.
The UK Government has concluded the missile in question was fired from within Gaza rather that from Israel, despite inital claims to the contrary which were widely reported by several UK media outlets.
President Joe Biden is likewise reluctant, telling reporters yesterday: “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”
The Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and is speeding multiple sophisticated air defense systems to the Middle East days ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza.
One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt Gen James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and served in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the most heated urban combat there, according to a US official who was not authorized to discuss Glynn’s role and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Lt Gen Glynn will also be advising on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare, the official said.
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Israel is preparing a large-scale ground operation in an environment in which Hamas militants have had years to prepare tunnel networks and set traps throughout northern Gaza’s dense urban blocks.
Lt Gen Glynn and the other military officers who are advising Israel “have experience that is appropriate to the sorts of operations that Israel is conducting,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday.
The advisers will not be engaged in the fighting, the unidentified US official said.
The military team is one of many fast-moving pieces the Pentagon is getting in place to try and prevent the already intense conflict between Israel and Hamas from becoming a wider war.
It also is trying to protect US personnel, who in the last few days have come under repeated attacks that the Pentagon has said were likely endorsed by Iran.
Israel is is stepping up airstrikes on of targets in the Gaza Strip prior to an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants, with the death toll rapidly increasing.
Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack.
A third small aid convoy entered Gaza on Monday carrying only a tiny fraction of the supplies aid groups say is necessary.
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