Lord Cameron has said there is “no moral equivalence” between the actions of Hamas fighters and Israel’s military.
Speaking to Sky News on a visit to Washington in his new role as foreign secretary, the former prime minister said the UK continued to tell Israel “it has to abide by international humanitarian law”.
But he said there was a “fundamental difference” between the two sides, saying: “Whereas Israel uses its defences to try and defend its people, Hamas uses its people to try and defend its rockets.”
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Israel is furthering its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip as the war with Hamas continues following the attacks on 7 October.
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A total of 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 more were abducted and taken into Gaza as hostages on that day – more than 75 have now been released as part of a now-expired ceasefire.
The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry says more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since – and says 70% of fatalities are women and children.
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The war has also displaced more than three-quarters of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians, who are running out of safe places to go.
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Asked whether Israel needed to be “more discriminatory” in its attacks, Lord Cameron said: “We have said right from the start and have said continually that look, we back Israel’s right to defend itself to go after Hamas. This is a murderous terrorist organisation. I saw for myself the terrible things that they did on 7 October.
“But we have said that Israel has to have a regard for civilian life, they have to obey international humanitarian law and specifically as they started in the south, not to repeat the tactics in the north.
“We have made those points just as the Americans have and will continue to do so.”
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But the foreign secretary appeared to defend Israel’s actions further, adding: “Of course we want to see pauses so that aid can get in and hostages can get out.
“But if you look at it from Israel’s point of view – or in fact the world’s point of view – if you stop this and Hamas is still in control of part of Gaza, there can’t be the long-term solution that we want.
“[Hamas] is a murderous terrorist organisation that wants to kill as many people as it can, that doesn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist, and it can’t possibly be a partner for peace.”
Questioned about remarks from Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week, who dubbed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal”, Lord Cameron said it was for international bodies to rule on whether war crimes had been committed,
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“But there is a fundamental difference,” he said. “They [Hamas] have no regard for civilian casualties, they want as many civilian casualties as possible, so I don’t see there is some sort of moral equivalence between the two.
“Israel has to abide by international humanitarian law and that is the point we keep making to it.”
