Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Canada – saying that they had “effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power”.
He also accused Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Addressing Thursday’s attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington, Netanyahu said the leaders of some of Israel’s closest allies wanted Israel to “stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive”.
Downing Street has so far not responded directly, but pointed to Sir Keir’s earlier condemnation of the Washington attack.
In that post, Sir Keir called antisemitism an “evil we must stamp out”.
All three countries denounced the Washington shooting and came out in strong support of Israel following the deadly Hamas-led attacks 19 months ago.
But earlier this week, Britain, France and Canada condemned Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war as “disproportionate” and described the humanitarian situation as “intolerable”.
They threatened concrete actions if Israel did not stop.
In his video, Netanyahu said Hamas wanted to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. He said the Palestinian armed group had welcomed the joint UK, French and Canadian criticism of Israel’s war conduct.
“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.
