<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Stopping British arms sales to Israel if it launches a ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would strengthen Hamas, Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron said today.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate more of the southern city yesterday in an indication it was pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack, despite US president Joe Biden’s threat to withhold the supply of some weapons if it did so.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cameron said he did not support an operation in Rafah in the absence of a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering in the southern border city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, Britain was in a “completely different position” to the US in terms of providing arms to Israel, he said, noting that the less than 1% of Israel’s weapons that came from Britain were already controlled by a strict licensing system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We could, if we chose to, make a sort of political message and say we are going to take that political step,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The last time I was urged to do that (…), just a few days later there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel, including 140 cruise missiles,” he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cameron said the “better answer” would be for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to accept a hostage deal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Just to simply announce today we’re going to change our whole approach to arms exports rather than go through our careful process, it would strengthen Hamas, it would make a hostage deal less likely, I don’t think it would be the right approach,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Source: Reuters </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>