Britain should stop arms sales to Israel, says former National Security Advisor

Britain should stop supplying weapons to Israel, a former British national security adviser said.

Lord Ricketts made the remarks after aid workers were killed in an Israeli attack on Monday.

Among the seven employees of the food aid organization World Central Kitchen killed in Gaza were three British citizens.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Ricketts said: “Yes, we have reached the point” where arms sales should be suspended.

“Sometimes in conflicts there comes a moment when the global outrage is so great that the feeling emerges that things cannot go on like this. And I think – and hope – that this terrible incident serves that purpose,” he said.

Ricketts served as National Security Advisor to David Cameron when he was Prime Minister.

“In my view, there is now ample evidence that Israel has failed to adequately meet its obligations regarding the security of civilians,” he added.

“A country that buys weapons from Britain must comply with international humanitarian law. I think it is time to send that signal.”

“It will not change the course of the war, but it could be a strong political signal. It could also trigger a debate in the US that would be the decisive turning point when Americans start thinking about imposing limits and restrictions on the use of American weapons in Israel.”

Rishi Sunak had previously told Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu he was “appalled” by the killing of the aid workers, a sign of a growing rift between the two allies.

Downing Street said Sunak had “called for a thorough and transparent independent investigation into the events” and described the situation in Gaza as “increasingly intolerable”.

Britain is a staunch ally of Israel, but Sunak has become increasingly critical of the war effort and is under pressure to stop British arms exports to Israel.

He told Netanyahu: “Israel’s legitimate goal of defeating Hamas would not be achieved if a humanitarian catastrophe was allowed to occur in the Gaza Strip.”

According to the UN, at least 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war so far.

Two of the Britons who died in the bombing were named as James Henderson (33) and John Chapman (57). The third was named by the BBC on Tuesday evening as James Kirby.

Netanyahu has acknowledged that the country’s armed forces carried out the “accidental attack” on “innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” He says authorities will “investigate this thoroughly” and “do everything to ensure that something like this does not happen again.”

Footage showed the bodies in a hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. Several of them were wearing protective clothing with the aid group’s logo. The dead also included an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian national and a Palestinian, according to hospital records.

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