Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: Labour Government’s decisions on Israel are “misguided”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the Labour Government’s policies on Israel in an interview with the Daily Mail, stating that the decisions to suspend 30 arms export licences and drop the previous Conservative Government’s opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders are “misguided”.
He said that Labour’s policies “will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens, and took 255 people, including five British hostages”.
“[The Labour Government] say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but they undermine our ability to exercise that right both by reversing Britain’s position on the absurd allegations made by the ICC prosecutor against Israel and by blocking weapons sales to Israel as we fight against the genocidal terrorist organisation that carried out the October 7 massacre”, the Prime Minister of Israel added.
“Israel is waging a just war with just means, taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians out of harm’s way and comporting fully with international war”, he continued, stating that Labour’s decision to suspend arms exports “days after Hamas executed six hostages”, sends “a horrible message to Hamas”.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said that “just as Britain’s heroic stand against the Nazis is seen today as having been vital in defeating barbarism, so too will history judge Israel’s stand against Hamas and Iran’s axis of terror. Israel will win this war and secure our common future”.
On the ICC decision, he said: “The Labour Government decided to drop its challenge to the preposterous ICC arrest warrants that were requested by the ICC prosecutor against the prime minister and the defence minister of Israel. If the arrest warrants are issued against the leaders of the only democracy in the Middle East, it will compromise the ability of all democracies in the world to fight terrorism, including Britain”.
He also raised concerns about rising levels of antisemitism in the UK, stating: “Britain is witnessing shameless antisemitism on its campuses, at its city centres and in many parts of the country. It is worrisome. I trust and expect that the UK leadership will take the necessary steps to root out this scourge”.
Senior Conservatives have strongly condemned Labour’s policy announcements, with Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak questioning how it “will help to secure the release of the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas” and expressing his “hope [that] the Prime Minister understands the hurt that has been caused” by timing the announcement as Israel buried six hostages murdered by Hamas.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said that Labour’s announcement of an arms embargo “on the day when Israel is burying its murdered hostages, and within weeks of British military personnel and arms defending Israel from Iranian attack, is not easy to swallow”.
Hezbollah fires over 150 rockets at northern Israel, IDF targets primed rocket launchers
The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group has launched more than 150 rockets towards Israeli communities today, after carrying out missile and drone attacks yesterday that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured nine. Fires broke out in the Upper Galilee as a result of the rocket barrage.
Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck around 100 rocket launchers ready to fire approximately 1,000 rockets towards Israel; additional Hezbollah targets in Lebanon were also destroyed including a weapons depot.
The terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to respond after communications devices held by Hezbollah fighters exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday, blaming Israel for the “unprecedented” attack.
Nasrallah said in a televised address yesterday: “There is no doubt that we have been subjected to a major security and military blow that is unprecedented in the history of the resistance and unprecedented in the history of Lebanon”.
He said that the attacks “crossed all red lines”, adding: “There will be a just punishment. I will not say when, where or how. You will know when the time comes”.
Israel has not responded to allegations of its involvement in the blasts that killed at least 37 people and injured nearly 3,000 when pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday. Israel has been accused of compromising the supply chain and planting explosives in the devices.
Israel has said its objectives are: the safe return of evacuated Israeli citizens to their homes, strikes on Hezbollah to limit their offensive capabilities, preventing a regional escalation and creating conditions to end the war.
Around 80,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes across Israel’s north due to Hezbollah’s bombardment. Approximately 8,000 rockets have been launched by Hezbollah towards Israel since 8th October, following the Hamas-led 7th October attacks.
Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP calls for IRGC proscription
Former Cabinet Minister and Conservative Leadership Candidate Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP has urged the Labour Government to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stating that Iran is spreading “chaos” in the UK while “Labour dithers”.
Writing in The Telegraph, he said that Iran is working to “sow division in our communities, operating from buildings in the UK where we know they are plotting attacks on British residents”.
“The world’s chief sponsor of terror, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), uses its £5 billion budget to spread chaos, not just across the Middle East, but here in the UK too”, the former Cabinet Minister wrote, stating that they control “armies of terrorists who even threaten the shipping lanes we all rely on for goods and food we have here in Britain”.
The Conservative MP for Newark said that “in opposition, Sir Keir’s party repeatedly made a virtue of their promise to proscribe, or ban, the IRGC, designating it a terrorist organisation”, and “David Lammy told how Labour’s government would ban the IRGC, again and again”.
“On our streets we know that the IRGC has supported groups sowing division with attacks on Jewish people and Israel, which I visited in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. They support mosques, charities and schools to radicalise people in our communities against our British way of life. And they use criminal gangs and thugs to intimidate people on our streets, forcing journalists out of our country last year”, he said.
Mr Jenrick continued: “MI5 and police revealed they had foiled 15 Iranian assassination plots over a year against UK residents who the regime wants rid of”.
He underlined that “proscribing the IRGC would allow UK authorities to crack down much more tightly against groups linked to the Iranian regime’s terror sponsors”, which is “vital for our security” and “will send a clear signal that the IRGC’s actions in the UK, and around the globe, are a threat to our way of life, and that we draw a clear line that must not be crossed”.
