New Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as America and Britain stepped up pressure on Israel to limit civilian casualties during its invasion of Gaza to crush terror group Hamas.
Battles between Israeli soldiers and Hamas gunmen around hospitals have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza, stranding critically wounded patients and dozens of newborn babies with dwindling supplies and no electricity, said health officials.
US President Joe Biden said Gaza’s main Shifa Hospital “must be protected”.
“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” the US president added.
Rishi Sunak, in his Lord Mayor’s Banquet speech on Monday evening, warned that “too many civilians are losing their lives”.
He stressed that “Israel must be able to defend itself against terror” after Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Islamic State-style attacks on October 7 and took around 240 hostages.
But with the death toll in Gaza reported to have risen above 10,000 he emphasised the need for “unhindered humanitarian access and urgent and substantive humanitarian pauses”.
He also argued that the Palestinian Authority had to be “bolstered” as part of steps towards a two-state solution to end the Middle East conflict.
As Britain and the US were co-ordinating their response to the appalling bloodshed, the Foreign Office said on Monday night: “Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron spoke to @SecBlinken this evening.
“They discussed the conflict in the Middle East, Israel’s right to self defence and the need for humanitarian pauses to allow the safe passage of aid into Gaza.”
The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to flee south from Gaza city on foot through what it calls safe corridors.
But local people say some who have tried to do this have been shot.
Thousands fled Shifa Hospital over the weekend as Israeli troops encircled it, and doctors said gunfire and explosions have raged all around it.
Israeli troops appear to be only a short distance from the facility.
Hundreds of patients and displaced people remain in the hospital, officials say.
Shifa “is not functioning as a hospital any more”, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The Red Cross was attempting to evacuate some 6,000 patients, staff and displaced people from a second hospital, Al-Quds, after it shut down for lack of fuel, but it said yesterday that its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.
