'Terrible' Israel-Hamas Conflict 'Must End', Says UK’s Sunak

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak briefs the press upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 October 2023. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak briefs the press upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 October 2023. (EPA)
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'Terrible' Israel-Hamas Conflict 'Must End', Says UK’s Sunak

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak briefs the press upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 October 2023. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak briefs the press upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 October 2023. (EPA)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday said the "terrible" war between Israel and Hamas "must end", six months on from the start of the conflict.

"We continue to stand by Israel's right to defeat the threat from Hamas and defend their security. But the whole of the UK is shocked by the bloodshed," he said in a statement.

"This terrible conflict must end. The hostages must be released. The aid –- which we have been straining every sinew to deliver by land, air and sea -– must be flooded in," he added.

Sunak said the children of Gaza needed a "humanitarian pause immediately, leading to a long-term sustainable ceasefire".

"That is the fastest way to get hostages out and aid in, and to stop the fighting and loss of life.

"For the good of both Israelis and Palestinians -- who all deserve to live in peace, dignity and security -- that is what we will keep working to achieve," he added.

The British government on Friday called for "utmost transparency" and a "wholly independent review" into the killing of seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip.

Three of the seven World Central Kitchen staff who died in an Israeli airstrike on Monday evening were British.

The deaths have also heaped pressure on the UK government to suspend arms export licences to Israel.

According to arms control groups, London has approved more than £487 million ($614 million) of weapons sales to Israel since 2015 in so-called single issue licences.

The British government, meanwhile, said a Royal Navy ship would be deployed to help get more aid into Gaza.

Alongside the deployment, Britain also announced a £9.7 million ($12.25 million) package for aid deliveries, logistical expertise and equipment support for a humanitarian corridor in the eastern Mediterranean between Cyprus and Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Britain and its allies needed to “explore all options” including sea and air deliveries to “ease the desperate plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people” in the territory.

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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.