PICTURES of starving children in Gaza have not affected Kemi Badenoch’s support for Israel, the Tory leader has said.
Asked about Israel’s engineered famine in [[Gaza]], Badenoch claimed that Israel was “trying to defend itself” during an interview with Sky News on Sunday.
Her comments come amid widespread international condemnation of Israel for blocking aid from entering the besieged Palestinian territory, which has resulted in children starving to death.
Speaking on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show, Badenoch said: “War is a difficult situation and what I see when I see Israel is a country that is trying to defend itself, mostly from Iran and a lot of its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. I think they are in a very difficult situation.
“What worries me is that the length of time that this war has been going on is making it very difficult for the people in the Palestinian territories and also for Israel.
“We need to bring things to an end.”
Her comments came as Israel announced a “tactical pause” in its assault on Gaza to allow humanitarian aid into the territory beginning on Sunday.
Israel has said it had allowed aid packages to be dropped into the territory from the air, which has been criticised by humanitarian agencies.
Ciaran Donnelly of the International Rescue Committee said last week: “Aid drops are a grotesque distraction from the reality of what's needed on the ground in Gaza right now. They can never deliver the volume, the consistency or the quality of aid and services that's needed.”
Asked about the policy on Sky News on Sunday, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said: “I absolutely accept and recognise that there are real limits and drawbacks with airdrops when it comes to aid, but I also think that until the restrictions are lifted, until aid is able to get in at the scale and quantity that is needed, we need to be doing everything we possibly can to help.”
Keir Starmer is expected to press the case for a ceasefire when he meets US president Donald Trump in Scotland later on Sunday.
