Netanyahu accuses Starmer of siding with Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Sir Keir Starmer and other leaders have “effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power”.

He also accused British, French and Canadian leaders of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

In a video posted on X addressing Thursday’s attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC, Netanyahu said Sir Keir, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney wanted Israel to “stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive”.

Downing Street has declined to comment directly on Netanyahu’s remarks, but pointed to Sir Keir’s previous condemnation of the Washington attack on X.

In that post, Sir Keir called antisemitism an “evil we must stamp out”.

On Monday, the UK, France and Canada condemned the expanded Israeli military operation and denial of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and threatened concrete actions if they did not stop.

Netanyahu said Hamas want to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people.

“I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.”

“I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice.”

“You’re on the wrong side of humanity, and you’re on the wrong side of history,” he added.

An Israeli minister, Amichai Chikli, said Sir Keir and other leaders had been “emboldening the forces of terror”.

Earlier, the UK prime minister said he was “horrified” by Israel’s actions and called the situation in Gaza “intolerable”, adding that Israel’s decision to allow only a small amount of aid into Gaza was “utterly inadequate”.

In an interview for BBC World Service’s Newshour programme, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the current Israeli administration as a “gang of thugs”.

He was asked about remarks by the Israeli education minister, who had said Olmert should be ashamed of a previous interview with the BBC, where he argued that what Israel was doing in Gaza was “close to a war crime”.

“This is nonsense, they are a group of thugs that are running the state of Israel these days and the head of the gang is Netanyahu – this is a gang of thugs,” Olmert said.

“Of course they are criticising me, they are defaming me, I accept it, and it will not stop me from criticising and opposing these atrocious policies.”

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,762 people, including 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.