Israel fighting ‘proxy war on behalf of UK’ in Gaza: British opposition leader

British opposition leader Kemi Badenoch says Israel is fighting a “proxy war on behalf of the United Kingdom” in Gaza, while defending the regime’s actions in the besieged territory as “not genocide.”
Sky News’ Trevor Phillips then challenged the British politician again, suggesting, “This morning it doesn’t sound like you’re criticizing anything that the Israelis do.”
“That’s not true,” she claimed. “I have criticized things before, but right now there are 58 hostages who have not been returned home.”
Badenoch’s remarks come amid a recent report that Britain keeps exporting arms and equipment, including F-35 fighter jet parts, to the occupying Tel Aviv regime despite a government suspension in September 2024.
The report released by three campaign groups says parts for the jet, which has been critical for Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, appear to have arrived in the Israeli-occupied territories as recently as March.
An investigation using Israeli customs data says 8,630 munitions items were sent from the UK to the occupied lands since the suspensions.
The munitions fall under a category of import labeled “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles, and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.”
Most of the shipments cited in the report happened after the government’s arms suspension.
At least 53,939 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and another 122,797 individuals injured in the brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant, citing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the besieged coastal territory.
Badenoch made the controversial remarks in an interview with Sky News on Sunday.
When asked whether she agrees with the language of Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Conservative Party responded, “I’m not here to police the language of the prime minister of Israel…. Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is on behalf of Western Europe against Russia. We have to get serious!”
She also refused to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza and defended them as not genocide.
“Israel is fighting a war. It is not for me to police exactly how they are doing that,” Badenoch said. “It is not a genocide, as people are saying.”
He remarks came after a joint statement this week by France, Britain and Canada, which called on Israel to halt the “intolerable” human suffering in Gaza. The trio warned that if Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and fails to lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, “further concrete actions” would be implemented in response.
Following the statement, the UK government suspended free trade negotiations with the Israeli regime on Tuesday.
Presstv