At least six British citizens dead and ten missing in Israel “pogrom” says UK Prime Minister Sunak as he declares solidarity with Israel, and extra aid money for Palestinian people.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak updated the national parliament’s lower chamber on Monday, giving an update on the numbers of British passport holders known caught up in this month’s terrorist attack, decrying the “existential strike at the very idea of Israel as a safe homeland for the Jewish people”.
Sunak described the carnage caused by Hamas terrorists as they raided Israeli territory, going door-to-door at Kibbutzes (communal farms) and attacking music festivals, saying: “over 1,400 murdered one by one… Almost 200 taken hostage. The elderly, men, women, children, babes in arms murdered, mutilated, burned alive. We should call it by its name. It was a pogrom.”
Britain stands with Israel, Sunak said, revealing the latest figures, telling Parliament: “The terrible nature of these attacks means it is proving difficult to identify many of the deceased. But with a heavy heart, I can inform the house that at least six British citizens were killed. A further ten are missing, some of whom are feared to be among the dead.”
While expressing solidarity and sympathy for both Israel and Jews in the United Kingdom fearing a rising tide of antisemitism, Sunak also said he recognised British Muslims were feeling a “moment of great anguish” as they were “appalled by Hamas’s actions but fearful of the response”. The Prime Minister said Hamas used “innocent Palestinian people as human shields” and said the UK government was boosting aid payments to Palestine while calling on Israel to “take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians”.
“I am proud that we are a longstanding and significant provider of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. And I can announce today that we are increasing our aid by a third, with an additional ten million pounds of support. An acute humanitarian crisis is unfolding to which we must respond. We must support the Palestinian people because they are victims of Hamas too.”
Israel has previously warned how Hamas has subverted foreign aid meant for the support and betterment of civilians living in the Gaza Strip to bolster its own military power instead. Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom told broadcaster Sky News on Monday morning that: “Hamas abused every single support of the international community and instead of taking care of its people, it created this underneath tunnel of terror and manufacturing of rockets that the only main target is to hurt innocent Jews in their homes.”
It has previously been reported that Hamas dug up fresh water pipeline projects paid for by international aid to recycle the steel pipes used to transport water into rocket casings in recent years. It has also been claimed Hamas equipped its terrorist fighters with United Nations-donated first aid kits during their raid, and later looted a United Nations compound in Gaza for supplies.