The British government says it will suspend new free trade negotiations with Israel due to its military conduct in the war on Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days under bombardment, a new ground offensive has been launched and starvation is widespread.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the United Kingdom was imposing additional sanctions on illegal Israeli settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has also been summoned to the Foreign Office.
This comes as the European Union voted to review its trade cooperation deal with Israel, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday.
The actions came a day after the UK, France and Canada condemned Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and assaults and raids in the West Bank.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ramped up his pointed criticism of Israel on Tuesday, saying the level of suffering by children in Gaza was “utterly intolerable” and repeating his call for a ceasefire.
As settler violence against Palestinians, backed by the Israeli army, has surged in recent months, Lammy said the persistent cycle of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank demanded action.
In addition to previous sanctions, the UK has now imposed sanctions on another “three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organisations supporting violence against the Palestinian community”, he added.
He said the UK’s existing trade agreement with Israel is still in effect, but new discussions cannot be undertaken with an Israeli government pursuing “egregious policies” in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,” Lammy said. “Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”
The UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer will also tell the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Hotovely, that “the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible”, Lammy added.
Israel quickly denounced the UK’s decision: “Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry called the UK sanctions “unjustified and regrettable”.
Arms to Israel
The Labour government has been heavily criticised at home for not saying or doing enough in support of Palestinians under constant fire and facing starvation in besieged Gaza. Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators turn out for weekly marches in Britain.
Labour MP Zarah Sultana accused Starmer’s government of being “complicit” in a “campaign of collective punishment waged with impunity”.
She told Al Jazeera: “Families have been obliterated, entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble, and essential services like food, water and electricity deliberately targeted.
“This is not a tragic accident of war. It is the predictable result of a campaign of collective punishment waged with impunity … The UK’s failure to act is not just a moral disgrace – it is a political choice.”
Former Labour Party leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn also told Al Jazeera the “only one way the government can cease its complicity in genocide” is by “ending military cooperation with Israel and imposing sanctions”.
Although the Labour government suspended some arms export licences to Israel, it made an exception for the F-35 fighter jet programme, citing its obligations to international supply chains.
Meanwhile, a report from the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed earlier this month that the UK sent “8,630 separate munitions” since the partial arms suspension took effect in September.
According to the UK government’s own data released on Thursday, it approved 127.6 million pounds ($171m) worth of military equipment to Israel in single-issue licences between October and December 2024 – despite the partial arms embargo coming into place in September.
Last week, a High Court case was launched challenging the UK’s handling of arms export controls to Israel.
Gearoid O Cuinn, founding director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which has taken the UK government to court over the sale of weapons, told Al Jazeera that the government’s decision to suspend a future trade deal has “no bearing on the immediate catastrophe in Gaza”.
“It’s not a future trade deal that is facilitating the killing and starving kids,” he said. “It’s the ongoing supply of British weaponry and military support.”
EU votes to review Israel trade deal
As international pressure intensifies on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the European Commission has launched a review of its trade agreement with Israel in response to the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said a “strong majority” of EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels supported the review of the bloc’s association agreement with Israel.
The move aims to determine whether Israel has breached its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, speaking in parliament, welcomed the decision and said 17 of the EU’s 27 member states had backed the proposal.
Kallas also confirmed that EU sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers had been drawn up but remain blocked by one member state, which she did not name.
“The aid that Israel has allowed in is, of course, welcomed,” Kallas said. “But it’s a drop in the ocean. Aid must flow immediately, without obstruction and at scale, because this is what is needed.”
