Departing from Britain's normally softly-softly approach to Israel, Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday called Israeli raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla as “completely unacceptable” and called for international action to prevent such a thing from happening again.
In a strongly worded statement in the Commons, Mr. Cameron also demanded immediate lifting of the blockade of Gaza pointing out that the United Nations ‘Resolution 1860' of January 2009 was “absolutely clear about the need to end the blockade to open up Gaza.”
Calling upon the ‘Friends of Israel' to put pressure on it to end the blockade, Mr. Cameron said, “Friends of Israel — and I count myself a friend of Israel — should be saying to the Israelis that the blockade actually strengthens the Hamas' grip on the economy and on Gaza. And it's in their own interest to lift it and allow these vital supplies to go through.”
About Monday's raid he told MPs that in conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he ‘stressed' that everything should be done to make sure that ‘this doesn't happen again.'
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain had expressed its ‘disappointment' to the Israeli government about the levels of preparedness on their part.
He asked Israel to fully implement the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a credible and transparent enquiry into Monday's events.
