The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has met Israel’s president and prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to the country.
Here is what Netanyahu had to say...
Sunak and Netanyahu have given a short press conference, the Guardian reported on their live feed.
And shared some of the key quotes and lines.
Netanyahu framed the conflict as a showdown between good and evil, modernity and barbarism, saying that both Israel and the world were facing their “darkest hour”.
He said:
This is a battle of Western civilisation, the battle of the free world, the battle for the future. We have here two forces. One is an axis of evil, led by Iran through Hezbollah, Hamas and others, that want to bring back the Middle East to the Middle Ages, to an age of bondage and war and slavery and annihilation.
And the other forces – the forces of progress and humanity – that want to push the Middle East into a world of peace and prosperity. We’re on the cusp of expanding that peace – and destroying that move was one of the reasons why this action was taken. We have to resist it and we have to win. Above all, we have to win. We have to release the hostages.
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He can be heard here:
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The Israeli PM also said the war would be long, adding that although there would be “ups and downs”, the people of Israel had never been more united.
He described Hamas and its allies as “the modern barbarians; the worst monsters on the planet”.
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Sunak said Israel had gone through something that “no country; no people should have to endure – least of all Israel”.
He also said that the UK supported Israel’s right to defend itself “in line with international law”, to go after Hamas and to bring back the hostages.
In a reference to concerns over Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks, Sunak added:
Now I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians, in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas, which seem to put civilians in harm’s way.
The British PM thanked Netanyahu for his support for British nationals “caught up in this horror”, including the hostages.
Sunak referred to Tuesday’s blast at the al-Ahli Arab hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip but did not speculate as to who may have been responsible for it.
He said:
We’ve seen scenes over the past day that have shocked all of us, particularly in the hospital and we mourn the loss of every innocent life.
Sunak also thanked the Israeli government for its decision to announce the opening up of humanitarian routes into Gaza.
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Screenshot from the live feed:
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