Rishi Sunak pledges UK's 'steadfast support' for Isreal after attacks
Rishi Sunak declares ‘terrorism will not prevail’ as he pledges ‘steadfast support’ for Benjamin Netanyahu before Downing Street is lit up in the Israel flag in show of solidarity
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Rishi Sunak has declared that ‘terrorism will not prevail’ as he pledged ‘steadfast support’ for Benjamin Netanyahu following the deadly attacks by the Hamas.
The Prime Minister has condemned the Palestinian militants for the ‘appalling act of terror’ on Israel and described the events of the past 36 hours, in which at least 700 people have been killed, as ‘truly horrifying’.
Mr Sunak also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, proclaiming that Britain stands with Israel as he revealed that Downing Street was illuminated with the Israeli flag in an expression of solidarity.
Meanwhile, the Government is working to establish the status of UK citizens in Israel, Mr Sunak said, as the attacks by the Hamas saw one British man serving in the country’s army killed.
The family of 20-year-old Nathanel Young, a Briton serving with the Israeli Defence Services, said he had been killed on the Gaza border on Saturday.
Two other UK nationals – 26-year-old Jake Marlowe, who went to the same London school as Mr Young and photographer Dan Darlington – are also thought to be missing.
Rishi Sunak has declared that ‘terrorism will not prevail’ as he pledged ‘steadfast support’ for Benjamin Netanyahu following the deadly attacks by the Hamas. The Prime Minister is pictured at the Chequers today where he delivered a video message about the situation in Israel
The Israeli flag illuminated Downing Street tonight in solidarity with the people of Israel
The Prime Minister posted tonight on X, formerly known as Twitter, to proclaim that Britain stands with Israel
Flames and smoke fill the air on Sunday as a result of the attack on the Gaza
Israeli airstrikes on Islamic National Bank of Gaza destroyed buildings and neighbourhoods at Rimal district of Gaza City. Citizens are pictured walking amongst the rubble on Sunday
In a statement delivered from Chequers, Mr Sunak said today: ‘The scenes that we’ve seen in Israel over the past 36 hours are truly horrifying.
‘I want to express my absolute solidarity for the people of Israel now is not a time for equivocation, and I’m unequivocal. Hamas, and the people who support Hamas, are fully responsible for this appalling act of terror, for the murder of civilians and for the kidnapping of innocent people, including children.’
Mr Sunak said he had spoken with the Israeli PM earlier today to offer the UK’s ongoing support, adding: ‘Terrorism will not prevail.’
Britain’s PM said he offered Mr Netanyahu ‘any support’ Israel needs in a conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister this afternoon, Downing Street said.
Mr Sunak also stressed his commitment to ‘ensuring the Jewish community in the UK feels safe and secure at this time’, according to a readout.
A No 10 spokesperson said: ‘The Prime Minister spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon, following deadly attacks by Hamas against Israel.
‘He reaffirmed that the UK will stand with Israel unequivocally against these acts of terror. The Prime Minister offered Prime Minister Netanyahu any support Israel needs.
‘The Prime Minister outlined the diplomatic work the UK is doing to ensure the world speaks with one voice in opposition to these appalling attacks. Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the Prime Minister for the UK’s support.
‘The Prime Minister also stressed his commitment to ensuring the Jewish community in the UK feels safe and secure at this time. The leaders agreed to stay in close contact as the situation develops.’
In a statement delivered from Chequers, Mr Sunak said today: ‘The scenes that we’ve seen in Israel over the past 36 hours are truly horrifying. I want to express my absolute solidarity for the people of Israel now is not a time for equivocation, and I’m unequivocal. Hamas, and the people who support Hamas, are fully responsible for this appalling act of terror, for the murder of civilians and for the kidnapping of innocent people, including children.’
Mr Sunak reiterated that the UK is one of Israel’s ‘strongest allies’ in supporting the country’s right to self-defence. Pictured: The Israeli flag illuminates Downing Street tonight
Israeli soldiers are pictured patrolling the roads near the border with Gaza on Sunday
Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday after the militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel
Israeli soldiers are pictured at the southern Israeli town of Ofakim on Sunday
Hamas militants’ bodies lie on the road south of Israeli near the border with Gaza on Sunday
Search and rescue team continue their effort at the damaged buildings after Israeli airstrikes launched in Gaza City yesterday
Israeli soldiers at the southern Israeli town of Ofakim on Sunday. Israel announced initiating a large-scale operation ‘Swords of Iron’ after the surprise attacks yesterday
Hamas claimed to have fired 5,000 rockets into Israel from the occupied Gaza Strip, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
Mr Sunak reiterated that the UK is one of Israel’s ‘strongest allies’ in supporting the country’s right to self-defence.
Speaking to reporters, he said: ‘The UK for a long time has been one of Israel’s strongest allies in supporting its right to self-defence and indeed providing the kinds of equipment that Israel has used to defend itself from these appalling attacks over the past 36 hours.
READ MORE: Israeli medic reveals horror at seeing ‘at least 200 bodies’ at festival where revellers ‘first realised something was wrong when a siren started going off before Hamas cut the power and started opening fire’
‘We will continue to do everything that we can to help. When I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu… I assured him of that support and said that the UK stood ready to provide that support, whether that’s diplomatic or security support’.
Mr Sunak also urged those in the region not to use the Israel-Hamas conflict ‘as an opportunity to incite further violence or hatred’.
He added: ‘Of course, no-one wants to see regional escalation, and both the UK and allies have urged everyone in the region not to use this as an opportunity to incite further violence or hatred.
‘And in the meantime, we will continue to provide Israel with every support that it needs as we stand steadfast with Israel, including its right to self-defence to ensure that these attacks do not happen.’
Asked what assistance is being provided to British citizens caught up in the conflict, he told reporters: ‘This is a dangerous and fast-moving situation on the ground. And I know that there will be families who are anxious about their loved ones.
‘I want to reassure them that the Foreign Office and the Government here is in close contact with our Israeli counterpart to establish the status of any British nationals on the ground.’
‘In the meantime, people should follow all the Foreign Office advice and indeed the advice from the Israelis on the ground and contact the Foreign Office if you have any concerns or need any assistance.’
The Israeli army moves artillery units toward border with Gaza on Sunday
A man is seen walking with his bicycle on Sunday after Israeli airstrikes destroyed buildings and neighbourhoods at Rimal district of Gaza City
Israeli soldiers take position on the main road near the border with Gaza on Sunday
Hamas militants’ bodies lie next to their car on the road south of Israeli near the border with Gaza on Sunday
Israeli army move artillery units towards the border with Gaza on Sunday
People flee as clashes flare between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces in Gaza City following the earlier air strikes on Saturday
Palestinians celebrate on Saturday after an Israeli tank was hit by Hamas gunmen who infiltrated the south of the country, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border
Israeli medical teams evacuate an injured person from the southern city of Sderot, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, on Saturday
Mr Young, who was a former pupil at JFS Jewish School in north London, is among hundreds to have died following a surprise attack by Palestinian militants which caught Israel off-guard on a major holiday.
READ MORE: Met Police confirms increased patrols in London amid fears of antisemitic attacks on capital’s Jewish communities and huge protests following violence in Israel
Gaby Shalev, from London, posted on Facebook: ‘We’re heartbroken to share that our little brother Nathanel Young was tragically killed on the Gaza Border yesterday.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his thoughts were with Mr Young’s family, condemning the ‘terrible violence’ which he labelled a ‘terrorist attack’.
‘This is a grave and significant moment,’ he said. ‘The indiscriminate attacks from Hamas are unjustifiable and have set back the cause of peace.’
Mr Marlowe, who went to the same school as Mr Young, was reported missing while providing security at a music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza border.
Mr Darlington, who was visiting from his home in Berlin, Germany, is also missing, according to his father David, as reported by the BBC.
Mr Young’s brother, Eliot Young, said in a statement released to the BBC: ‘Nathanel was full of life and the life of the party. He loved his family and friends and was loved by everyone.
‘He loved music and was a talented DJ, DJing both on base and at Benji’s House, the lone-soldier house where he was living.’
Mr Young had been living in the Bayit Shel Benji lone-soldier house in Raanana, according to the Jewish News.
The Israeli Embassy in London has confirmed his death and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has been approached for comment.
Nathanel Young, from London, was serving in the 13th Battalion of the Israeli Defence Forces when he was killed yesterday
In a moving tribute his family described Mr Young (centre right) as ‘the life of the party’ and a ‘talented DJ’
Jake Marlowe (pictured) was working as a security guard at a music festival that was attacked by Hamas militants
Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. Pictured, people try to extinguish fire on cars following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel
Israeli civilians were purportedly taken off the street and driven back into Gaza
A woman in Tel Aviv picks her way through rubble late on Saturday
The FCDO has advised against all but essential travel to Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories due to the conflict.
The Israeli Embassy in London confirmed that London-born Mr Marlowe, who is reported to have moved to Israel two years ago was missing, but it had not been confirmed that he had been kidnapped.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak says Israel has an ‘absolute right to defend itself’ after Hamas militants launched attacks from the Gaza Strip
A spokesperson said: ‘He is missing, we don’t know for sure that he is taken hostage or dead or in a hospital.’
Mr Marlowe’s mother Lisa, told the Jewish News: ‘He was doing security at this rave yesterday and called me at 4.30am to say all these rockets were flying over.
‘Then, at about 5.30am, he texted to say ‘signal very bad, everything OK, will keep you updated I promise you’, and that he loves me.’
Israeli media have reported that at least 700 people were killed, including 26 soldiers, during the attacks, prompting Mr Netanyahu to say they were at ‘war’ as the country launched a military response.
Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely confirmed that a British citizen ‘is in Gaza’ following kidnappings by Hamas, but did not clarify if they were being held hostage.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: ‘I know there is one British citizen who is in Gaza at the moment.
‘The Israeli government is doing everything we can to help those who are held hostage and every citizen who is taken is returned.’
Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns said the Government’s priority would be ensuring the safety of the missing Briton and as well as other British nationals in Israel.
She told Sky News today: ‘What we did see yesterday was British families having to hide in safe rooms some with, I believe, a baby as young as 10 days old, and so many international victims being taken hostage.
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7
Palestinians are greeted by crowds after returning from crossing the border into Israel on Saturday
A man carries a crying child as they walk past a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Saturday
Israeli tanks being transported on a road near Sderot. Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday
‘Obviously, that will be a priority for the British Government, I would expect the ministers will be in today working on precisely how we can get that individual to safety working with our allies.
‘It’s crucial we do not give the terrorists what they want but, at the same time, first and foremost the duty of the British Government is to keep British nationals safe.’
Ms Kearns placed the blame for the attack on Iran for supporting Hamas and called for the proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which she described as the country’s ‘international terror tool’.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said they would not comment on individual cases but added: ‘However, we can confirm we are in contact with, and assisting, the families of several individuals in Israel and the OPTs (Occupied Palestinian Territories).
‘The safety of all British nationals continues to be our utmost priority and we urge everyone to continue to follow our travel advice which is updated regularly.’
The Israeli government formally declared war on Sunday and gave the green light for ‘significant military steps’ to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack.
The declaration came as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The toll passed 1,000 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.
Dramatic footage caught the moment Gaza’s Islamic National Bank exploded after being hit during Israeli air strikes
Video footage captured the second the Islamic National Bank was struck, sending a huge cloud of smoke and flames into the air
Nearby buildings were destroyed during the strike on the bank in the Rimal district
Two men stand near the site of the explosion on Sunday, which tore through the neighbourhood and ripped overhead wires
More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to defeat the last groups of militants holed up in several towns.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel, a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades, and more than 300 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.
The Israeli rescue service Zaka said its paramedics removed about 260 bodies from a music festival attended by thousands that came under attack.
The total figure is expected to be higher as other paramedic teams were working in the area.
The Israel-Palestine conflict: recent events in a decades-long dispute
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched its biggest assault on Israel in years early on Saturday, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters across the border.
Israel said it was on a war footing and began its own strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, with Israeli media reporting gun battles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in southern Israel.
The following timeline, which begins with Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, details the major flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups in the crowded coastal enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.
August 2005: Israeli forces unilaterally withdraw from Gaza 38 years after capturing it from Egypt in the Middle East war, abandoning settlements and leaving the enclave under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Jan. 25, 2006: The Islamist group Hamas wins a majority of seats in a Palestinian legislative election. Israel and the U.S. cut off aid to Palestinians because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
June 25, 2006: Hamas militants capture Israeli army conscript Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza, prompting Israeli air strikes and incursions. Shalit is finally freed more than five years later in a prisoner exchange.
June 14, 2007: Hamas takes over Gaza in a brief civil war, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.
Dec. 27, 2008: Israel launches a 22-day military offensive in Gaza after Palestinians fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported killed before a ceasefire is agreed.
Nov. 14, 2012: Israel kills Hamas’s military chief of staff, Ahmad Jabari. Eight days of Palestinian militant rocket fire and Israeli air strikes follow.
July-August 2014: The kidnap and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas leads to a seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians are reported killed in Gaza and 73 Israelis are reported dead, 67 of them military.
March 2018: Palestinian protests begin at Gaza’s fenced border with Israel. Israeli troops open fire to keep protestors back. More than 170 Palestinians are reported killed in several months of protests, which also prompt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.
May 2021: After weeks of tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of Palestinians are wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces at the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site.
After demanding Israel withdraw security forces from the compound, Hamas unleashes a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel hits back with air strikes on Gaza. Fighting goes on for 11 days, killing at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel.
Aug 2022: At least 44 people, including 15 children, are killed in three days of violence that begin when Israeli air strikes hit a senior Islamic Jihad commander.
Israel says the strikes were a pre-emptive operation against an imminent attack by the Iranian-backed militant movement, targeting commanders and arms depots. In response, Islamic Jihad fires more than 1,000 rockets towards Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system prevents any serious damage or casualties.
Jan 2023: Islamic Jihad in Gaza fires two rockets towards Israel after Israeli troops raid a refugee camp and kill seven Palestinian gunmen and two civilians. The rockets set off alarms in Israeli communities near the border but cause no casualties. Israel responds with air strikes on Gaza.
Oct 2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in years from the Gaza Strip, with a surprise assault combining gunmen crossing the border with a heavy barrage of rockets. Islamic Jihad says its fighters have joined the attack.
Israel’s military said it was on a war footing, adding it had carried out strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza and had called up reservists.
Source: Reuters
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