Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has visited a synagogue in north London to express his solidarity with Israel and reassure Britain’s Jews in the wake of the Hamas attacks, which have killed more than 900 Israelis.
Mr. Sunak told the United Synagogue in Finchley on Monday evening: “There are not two sides to these events. There is no question of balance. I stand with Israel.”
On Tuesday, during a trip to Staffordshire, Mr. Sunak said, “We stand in solidarity with Israel and the people of Israel in the face of these barbaric acts of terrorism.”
He said: “I’d just remind everyone that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation. People should not be supporting Hamas and we will make sure that we hold people to account if they are.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday there were a “significant number” of dual British-Israeli nationals who had been caught up in the violence after hundreds of Hamas terrorists crossed the border from Gaza at the weekend.
He told LBC: “Even from the Israeli government, a lot of the figures about the casualties and fatalities are as yet to be fully confirmed. So I don’t really want to speculate, but we do know that a significant number of British-Israeli dual nationals have been in some way involved in the terrorist atrocities.”
Mr. Cleverly said the government was “standing ready” to support British citizens whose loved ones had been “injured in any way.”
The Hamas gunmen captured dozens of Israeli citizens and military personnel and are believed to have taken them to secret holding places inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas is now reportedly threatening to kill the hostages and livestream their deaths if Israel bombs targets in civilian areas of Gaza.
The Houses of Parliament were lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag on Monday night as the government made it starkly clear which side they supported in the conflict.
Mr. Cleverly said, “The truth is that the reason we express our solidarity with the people of Israel is because terrorists took action to murder, to kidnap, and we’re now seeing reports that they are threatening to execute people that they have kidnapped.”
“The idea that somehow there is an equivalence, there is a kind of a balancing act between the actions of the Israeli government and their self-defence, and the actions of Hamas and their terrorists, is completely inappropriate,” he added.
A number of pro-Palestinian protests took place in London and across the country on Monday, and there have been reports that “Free Palestine” graffiti was painted on a railway bridge in the Jewish community of Golders Green in north London.
Mr. Cleverly called on those who supported the Palestinian cause to “pause” their protests, saying they were causing further distress to the Jewish community. Among the British nationals known to have died in the weekend’s violence are Nathanel Young, 20, who was serving in the Israel Defense Forces, and Jack Marlowe, 26, who was killed at the Supernova music festival in Kibbutz Re’im.
Also known to have died is Bernard Cowan, who grew up near Glasgow, while photographer Dan Darlington is missing, presumed dead.
Since the weekend’s attacks, Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip, refusing to allow in food, fuel, medicine or other supplies and launching retaliatory air strikes on the territory, which is the size of the Isle of Wight but contains around 2.3 million people, including hundreds of thousands of children.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech on Monday night: “We have only started striking Hamas. What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
