Iran-Israel attack latest: ‘Clear’ Netanyahu has chosen to respond to Tehran, says David Cameron

Rishi Sunak has warned that the UK needs to see Israel delivering on commitments made to deliver more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In response to a question from George Galloway at PMQs about what the prime minister discussed during his call with Benjamin Netanyahu and what he will do “if an unrestrained war begins”, Mr Sunak replied: “I was pleased to speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu who thanked the UK for their support of Israel’s security over the weekend.

“We also discussed the situation and how Iran is isolated on the world stage, and also I made the point to him that significant escalation is not in anyone’s interest and it’s a time for calm heads to prevail.

“I also reiterated our concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza where I welcome the statements and commitments that the Israeli government have made about significantly increasing aid into Gaza, now we need to see those commitments delivered.”

Foreign Office minister David Rutley has insisted the government is “pushing as hard as it can” to get more aid into Gaza.

He told the Commons: “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire.

“The Iran attack and our support for Israel has not changed our focus on ensuring Israel meets its commitments to enable at least 500 aid trucks a day to enter Gaza, to open Ashdod port for aid deliveries, expand the Jordan land corridor, open a crossing into northern Gaza and extending hours at Kerem Shalom and Mitzi.

“We are pushing as hard as we can to get aid to Palestinian civilians and as this House knows we have been urging Israel at the highest levels to take immediate action on the bottlenecks holding up humanitarian relief.”

The United Nations has appealed for $2.8bn in funding to assist the populations of Gaza and the occupied West Bank until the end of the year, to help ease food shortages and prevent looming famine in Gaza.

A flash appeal published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that sum was needed to help 3.1 million people and “reduce human suffering and prevent further loss of life.”

A major chunk of funding – $782.1m – will be destined for food aid for 2.2 million people in Gaza and 400,000 people in the West Bank, the appeal said.

A senior UN aid official said on Tuesday that they were struggling to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip and while there had been some improvement in coordination with Israel, aid deliveries in the enclave still faced obstacles.

On the afternoon of 27 November 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh – regarded as the father of Iran’s nuclear programme – was travelling with his wife from Tehran to the resort city of Absard, accompanied by a security escort, when they were fatally ambushed.

Gunfire tore through the black Nissan Teana saloon as it crossed the Imam Khomeini Boulevard, hitting Fakhrizadeh, who was driving, in the shoulder and chest. He crawled out of the car to try to stop his wife from being hit, and was shot again. He died at the roadside.

The killing was carried out, according to varying accounts, either by a team of gunmen who had followed the convoy, or by a remote-controlled machine gun mounted on a truck, its trigger pulled a thousand miles away.

Mossad was blamed by Iran for the assassination of Fakhrizadeh – an accusation that Israel did not deny. Five other Iranian nuclear scientists had been killed in the previous 14 years, as well as the general in charge of missile development and 16 officers under his command.

As Benjamin Netanyahu’s government plans its response to the mass drone and missile attack launched by Iran at the weekend, among the options reportedly under consideration are covert operations inside Iran, and asymmetric campaigns such as sustained cyberattacks alongside conventional military assaults against Tehran’s proxy forces in the region.

Our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta reports:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will visit Turkey at the weekend to hold talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, broadcaster NTV has reported.

“I will host the leader of the Palestinian cause at the weekend. We will discuss a number of issues,” Mr Erdogan earlier told colleagues from his AK Party in parliament, once again calling Hamas a “liberation movement”.

There is “nothing protecting London in the same way that the Iron Dome operates over Israel”, Mr Ellwood told Sky News, adding: “We need to start thinking of how to protect ourselves as our character of war starts to change.”

Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has warned that talks on a Gaza ceasefire and a release of Israeli hostages are at a “delicate phase”.

“We are trying as much as possible to address this stumbling block,” he added, without giving further details.

Qatar’s premier condemned what he described as the policy of “collective punishment” still followed by Israel in its war against Hamas and the latest escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

When an Israeli shell struck Gaza’s largest fertility clinic in December, the explosion blasted the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks stored in a corner of the embryology unit.

As the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, destroying more than 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 more specimens of sperm and unfertilized eggs stored at Gaza City’s Al Basma IVF centre.

The embryos in those tanks were the last hope for hundreds of Palestinian couples facing infertility.

“We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past,” said Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, 73, the Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynaecologist who established the clinic in 1997.

At least half of the couples – those who can no longer produce sperm or eggs to make viable embryos – will not have another chance to get pregnant, he said, adding. “My heart is divided into a million pieces.”