Israel-Hamas: David Cameron urges Israel to 'stop and think seriously' as Rafa incursion a 'terrifying' prospect

Lord David Cameron has spoken about the situation on the Gaza Strip during a visit to Scotland

A full-scale military incursion in Rafah in the south of Gaza has been described as a “terrifying” prospect by the United Nations human rights chief, as Lord David Cameron warned Israel to “stop and think seriously” before taking any further action.

Speaking during a visit to Glasgow on Monday, the UK foreign secretary said there was "nowhere" to go for the 1.5 million people sheltering in the southern Gazan strip.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, separately appealed for restraint, saying a potential fully-fledged operation in Rafah was “terrifying, given the prospect that an extremely high number of civilians, again mostly children and women, will likely be killed and injured".

Palestinians inspect the damage in the rubble of a building where two hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

“Today, sadly, given the carnage wrought so far in Gaza, it is wholly imaginable what would lie ahead in Rafah,” he said.

His comments came as Rafah was hit by a series of overnight strikes leading into Monday that killed 67 people, as two hostages were rescued from the city and Israel signalled its intention to carry out a ground offensive in the area.

Israeli forces had stormed a heavily guarded apartment in the southern Gaza Strip to extract the captives.

The freed hostages were identified as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70. Both men were said to have been kidnapped by Hamas militants from Kibbutz Nir Yizhak in the October 7 cross-border attack that started the four-month Israel-Hamas war. The army said both men were in “good medical condition”.

Lord Cameron said many of the people in Rafah had already fled from other areas and stressed it was “impossible to see how you can fight a war amongst these people, there is nowhere for them to go”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Downing Street was “deeply concerned” about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah.

The town, on the border with Egypt, is one of the few regions not yet targeted by an Israeli ground offensive.

The warnings came as the Foreign Office sanctioned four Israeli settlers accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Announcing the restrictions, the Foreign Office said Israel’s “failure to act” had led to “an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists”, with violence in the West Bank reaching record levels in 2023.

Speaking to reporters in East Kilbride during his Scotland visit, Lord Cameron said: “We are very concerned about what is happening in Rafah because, let’s be clear, the people there, many of whom have moved four, five, six times before getting there.

“It really, we think, is impossible to see how you can fight a war amongst these people, there is nowhere for them to go.

“They can’t go south into Egypt, they can’t go north and back to their homes because many have been destroyed. So we are very concerned about the situation and we want Israel to stop and think seriously before it takes any further action.

“But above all, what we want is an immediate pause in the fighting. We want that pause to lead to a ceasefire, a sustainable ceasefire without a return to further fighting. That is what should happen now.

“We need to get those hostages out, including the British nationals. We need to get the aid in. The best way to do that is to stop the fighting now and turn that into a permanent, sustainable ceasefire.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We are obviously deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah. Over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering there and that crossing is vital to ensuring aid can reach the people who desperately need it.”

It comes as 21 different agencies and organisations have written to the Prime Minister urging him to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the offensive in Rafah, as well as the suspension of all arms export licences for sales Israel.

The list of signees includes ActionAid UK, Cafod, Christian Aid and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights.

“We, as agencies united, attempted to work together with the Government towards leveraging what the UK can do to halt these atrocities,” the letter said. “We are losing confidence in ministers as the UK appears utterly incapable of restraining Israel in its current attempts.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accused both Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of “cowardice” for not backing calls for an immediate ceasefire in the region.

Mr Flynn said while he was “pleased” the hostages were now in the “safe hands of Israeli forces rather than Hamas”, he described the episode as the “exception rather than the rule” in the ongoing conflict.

“Some dozens of civilians were killed in this attack – we are seeing Israeli defence forces launching an offensive on one of the world’s biggest refugee camps,” Mr Flynn told the BBC.

“Rafah currently has 1.5 million people who don’t have access to food, water, sanitation, medicine or electricity, and they are being bombarded by the Israeli government.

“We have been consistent in our view in calling for an immediate ceasefire since the beginning of this conflict, and we need to see Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer join us to save civilian lives by backing this ceasefire.”

Mr Flynn said the International Court of Justice had branded the war a “plausible genocide in Gaza” and said the UK must demand a ceasefire as a “friend and ally of Israel”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said sending troops into Rafah is necessary to eliminate Hamas. He announced on Friday that he had asked the military to prepare to enter Rafah and evacuate hundreds of thousands of people.

The White House has said US president Joe Biden told the Israeli prime minister on Sunday there should be no military operation in the densely populated Gaza border town without a “credible” plan to protect civilians.

Downing Street declined to say whether Mr Netanyahu’s claim that “total victory” over Hamas was months away was realistic.

Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said: “That’s the prime minister of Israel’s language.

“From the PM’s perspective, what we want to see is a pause in this fighting so we can get aid in and hostages out, and obviously what we all want to see is a sustainable ceasefire.

“Clearly, in order to reach that, as we’ve said before, we need to see measures taken including Hamas no longer in charge of Gaza and an arrangement that ensures the sustainable security of Israel, as well as aid in to support the people living in Gaza.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called on the US, among other countries, to stop providing weapons instead of simply demanding the two sides in the war in Gaza stop killing civilians.

“If you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Mr Borrell told reporters in Brussels after talks with the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.