UK government suspends free trade talks with Israel over Gaza war

It also imposes new sanctions, targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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 and as a new ground offensive has been launched.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the United Kingdom was imposing additional sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has also been summoned to the Foreign Office.

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.

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 repeated 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 imposed, the UK has now imposed sanctions on another “three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organizations 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 Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi 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.

Former Labour party leader, and independent member of parliament, Jeremy Corbyn 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”.

“It’s quite simple: you cannot say you oppose Israel’s renewed military operation if you keep providing them with the weapons they need to carry it out.”

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 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 worth of military equipment to Israel in single issue licenses between October to 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.

Gearóid Ó Cuinn, founding director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), who have 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 the Gaza”.

“It’s not a future trade deal that is facilitating the killing and starving kids, it’s the ongoing supply of British weaponry and military support.”

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Al Jazeera and news agencies