Israel should ‘stop and think’ on Rafah offensive, says David Cameron, as UK sanctions West Bank settlers

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2 years ago

February 12, 2024

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Israel should “stop and think” before taking any further action in Rafah, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said – as the UK sanctioned four settlers in the West Bank.

The former prime minister said the UK was “very concerned” about the situation on the Gaza-Egypt border.

Local health officials have said 37 people were killed in strikes on the city.

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Meanwhile, four Israeli settlers in the West Bank accused of human rights abuses were sanctioned by the UK.

Moshe Sharvit, Yinon Levy, Zvi Bar Yosef and Ely Federman are now subject to a UK assets freeze, alongside travel and visa bans.

The Foreign Office said Israel’s “failure to act” had led to “an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists”, with violence in the West Bank reaching record levels in 2023.

Lord Cameron said: “Today’s sanctions place restrictions on those involved in some of the most egregious abuses of human rights. We should be clear about what is happening here.

“Extremist Israeli settlers are threatening Palestinians, often at gunpoint, and forcing them off land that is rightfully theirs.

“This behaviour is illegal and unacceptable. Israel must also take stronger action and put a stop to settler violence. Too often, we see commitments made and undertakings given, but not followed through.

“Extremist settlers, by targeting and attacking Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Sustainable ceasefire calls

On the situation in Rafah, the foreign secretary said it was “impossible to see how you can fight a war amongst these people”, referring to the civilians in Gaza.

“There’s nowhere for them to go,” he added, with the border crossing to Egypt shut.

“We want Israel to stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action.

“Above all, what we want is an immediate pause in the fighting – we want that pause to lead to a ceasefire, a sustainable ceasefire without a return to further fighting.”

The Israeli military said it had conducted a “series of strikes” in southern Gaza on Monday.

It said the strikes had now concluded, without elaborating on the targets or assessing the potential damage or casualties.

Hostages freed

Israel later shared that two hostages had been rescued by special forces from Rafah.

The army named them as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, both taken from Kibbutz Nir Yizhak in the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Israel says it has expanded its ground operation in southern Gaza to root out Hamas fighters.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden warned Israel against launching a ground invasion of Rafah without a “credible” plan to protect civilians.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, later appeared defiant, telling the media: “We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah.”

Escalating crisis

Mr Netanyahu said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) believe four Hamas cells are operating inside Rafah.

But he gave assurances that the IDF would only carry out the operation “while providing safe passage for the civilian population”.

Egypt, which operates the border crossing at Rafah, said an offensive would violate international law and risk a refugee crisis spilling into their nation.

Qatar also warned of disaster while Saudi Arabia warned of “very serious repercussions”.

Following the 7 October attacks carried out by Hamas last year, Israel told those in Gaza to move south to areas like Rafah as troops entered the region.

Some 1.4 million Gazans have now relocated there, mostly in makeshift camps or ‘tent cities’.

An Israeli government spokesperson suggested civilians could find refuge in tent camps that are yet to be built, and said the international community was “more than welcome” to send shelter equipment.

Eylon Levy told Sky News: “We want civilians to get out of harm’s way. We don’t want to come in all guns blazing because we understand how catastrophic that would be.”

Asked where the more than one million civilians in Rafah should go, Mr Levy said: “That is part of the plan that the Israeli army will have to present [to] the prime minister because we take our obligations under international law to keep civilians protected very seriously.

“There are open spaces in Gaza, there are places where it is possible to set up tent encampments so that civilians can get out of harm’s way and not allow Hamas to use them as human shields.”

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

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13 hours ago

October 15, 2025

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.

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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.

She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.

Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.

Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.

Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”

She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.

What’s facing Reeves?

Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.

Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.

The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.

Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.

‘I won’t duck challenges’

In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.

“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.

“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”

She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.

“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”

Blame it on the B word?

Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.

This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.

The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.

“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.

“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”