UK won’t follow US in halting arms to Israel if it invades Rafah Cameron says

The UK is not copying a White House pledge to stop some arms exports to Israel if a full invasion of Rafah goes ahead, POLITICO reports quoting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

President Joe Biden warned on May 8 that the US will not supply “weapons that have been used historically” if the country presses on with a full assault on the densely-populated town in the Southern Gaza Strip.

Speaking after an address in London Thursday, Cameron said Britain “would not support some major operation in Rafah unless there was a very clear plan for how to protect people and save lives ... We have not seen that plan, so in these circumstances, we would not support a major operation in Rafah.”

But he said there is a “very fundamental difference” between arms shipments from the US and the UK, where the government grants individual licenses to companies wanting to export arms overseas.

“The US is a massive state supplier for weapons to Israel," he said. "We do not have a UK government supply of weapons to Israel. We have a number of licenses, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than one per cent of their total. That is a big difference.”

The foreign secretary said he would stick “very closely” to the UK’s “rigorous” arms export procedure.

Cameron insisted the U.K. and its allies are "making some progress” on promises by Israel to increase aid to Gaza, including being “quite close to getting a temporary harbour up and running." He also said Hamas must release more than 100 Israeli hostages it has held since its October 7 attacks on Israel.