
UK imports of Israeli fruit and veg increase as Gazans starve
According to Private Eye, in the first three months of 2025 – before Israel ended the ceasefire in Gaza and imposed the blockade on aid – imports to the UK were worth £51.3 million.
This is an increase from £29.1m in the last three months of 2024.
READ MORE: LIVE: Israel's security council approves plan to escalate genocide
The magazine cited trade figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), finding that vegetables and fruit make the biggest contribution to Israeli exports to the UK.
They were worth £139m last year, and are expected to earn much more this year.
Israel's blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid, contributing to Gaza's slide towards famine nearly 22 months into the war with Hamas.
Aid groups say Israel's week-old measures to allow more aid in are far from sufficient.
The UN human rights office has reported that 1400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May.
And, Israel has also reportedly exported larger amounts of other products that are restricted from entering Gaza to the UK.
Medical and pharmaceutical exports have more than double from £840,000 to £2m, while exports of toilet and cleansing products were worth £13.8m. In the last quarter of 2023, this was worth £13.15m.
The UK is an important export market for Israel – ranking behind the European Union, United States, China, and India.
READ MORE: Ross Greer demands action on Scottish Israel boycott plan
Meanwhile, Israel ranks behind almost 40 countries when it comes to UK exports.
It comes as Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City, sparking international outrage.
The military 'will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,' Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the meeting.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Israel to 'reconsider' its plan, while John Swinney urged the international community to intervene.
Elsewhere, Germany said it will suspend its arms exports to Israel which could be used in Gaza.
The SNP have called for Westminster to be recalled to impose sanctions on Netanyahu and Israel, while others have demanded the UK expel the Israeli ambassador.
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Metro
23 minutes ago
- Metro
Man ‘throws water and grabs throat' of protester demanding release of Israeli hostages
Palestinian and Israeli supporters clashed as hundreds marched to demand the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. There was one arrest as tempers flared on the 'national march for the hostages', organised by Stop the Hate UK, through central London on Sunday. The protest came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel has no choice but to 'finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas' in a final military takeover of Gaza. He explained he hopes to demilitarise Gaza, allowing the Israeli military to have 'security control' over the enclave. 26 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said on the same day Netanyahu spoke. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government meets a series of conditions towards ending the conflict in Gaza. But Stop the Hate urged the Prime Minister to prioritise the release of the 50 remaining Israeli hostages, with 20 of them thought to be alive, before any recognition of a Palestinian state. During the march one man was carried away by police officers after a scuffle broke out close to the gates of Downing Street. The man was seen throwing water over a pro-Israel demonstrator before charging at him. A scuffle broke out and the man then put his hand around the demonstrator's neck, before officers intervened. The man was seen being carried away by the officers. Among those due to attend and give a speech is Noga Guttman, the cousin of 24-year-old Evyatar David, who was kidnapped. Hamas released a video last weekend which showed Mr David looking skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel. Some protesters held Israeli flags and wore yellow ribbons as they congregated in Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn from 1.30pm. Earlier, on The Strand, a young man was kept away from the protesters after shouting 'Free Palestine'. The Metropolitan Police said officers were deployed along the route 'to ensure the safety of those attending and to deal with any offences.' A man, who was not part of the march, was arrested for common assault and a racially aggravated public order offence after the march briefly paused just past Charing Cross, the force said. Addressing the crowd in Whitehall, the UK's Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said: 'To our Government we turn and we say 'how would you ever be able to live with the fact that you would have recognised a Palestinian state, at the head of which is a terrorist organisation, with a stated intention of destroying the state of Israel and harming Jews right around the world and all this at a time when the hostages are still languishing in the tunnels of Gaza?' 'The Labour Party, both in opposition and now in Government, has had a mantra, they have continuously been saying 'don't judge us by our words, judge us by our deeds'. 'And to our Government we say right now this is the time for responsible action, it is not too late.' Ayelet Svatitzky, whose brothers Roi and Nadav Popplewell were murdered, said in her own speech: 'This week I joined a meeting with the UK Government to continue to press our case that the hostages must be freed before the UK Government can recognise the state of Palestine. 'As I said to the Government, to recognise the state without the return of all of the hostages is a prize to Hamas for the murder of my two brothers.' speakers from a progressive Judaism movement were booed at the march after saying that Palestinians have the 'right to self-determination'. Rabbi Charley Baginsky, speaking close to Downing Street, said: 'We call for an end to this war through a deal that brings the hostages home and the permanent restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza.' Some in the crowd began booing and shouting 'no deal', while one man shouted 'smash Hamas'. Rabbi Josh Levy then said: 'The Palestinian people like us have the right to self-determination. 'But how it is done matters too, we reject a methodology that tries to force this future through violence, terror and the suffering of civilians. More in the crowd joined in the booing, while some shouted 'shame on you' and demanded that the pair be removed. MORE: Netanyahu 'will have blood of hostages on his hands' if more are killed in Gaza takeover MORE: Nearly 500 arrested at central London protest in support of Palestine Action MORE: Israel sets October 7 deadline for Gaza City evacuation ahead of full occupation


Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Netanyahu is committing a strategic blunder that will alienate the world
By seeking to occupy the whole of Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu takes the war to its logical conclusion. Hamas was responsible for October 7, Israel will never be secure till Hamas is gone, and given that Hamas controls Gaza, why not uproot it from every last inch of territory? But the Israelis enter without an exit plan, with the mad dream of constructing a friendly civil administration, repeating the exact same mistakes we made in Iraq. Netanyahu thinks he can destroy a revolutionary Palestinian spirit that the war has likely intensified. For a man obsessed with the ancient world, he has a scant grasp of history. He has also divided his military. He has alienated those hostage families who are frightened their relatives might die. And he will finally, perhaps irrevocably, isolate Israel from world opinion. Even in America, the only serious power behind him, patience and conscience are under remarkable pressure. Gaza has become the moral test of our times, and European governments suspect they've failed it. Their initial caution was understandable. They didn't want to condemn Netanyahu lest it give courage to domestic anti-Semites and their snowflake enablers – let alone to Hamas, the principal beneficiary were we to recognise a Palestinian state. Journalists, myself included, were reluctant to parrot death statistics that might be inflated by a criminal regime. But it's now impossible to ignore the evidence of human suffering or the sham of the official Israeli narrative t hat says no one is starving or, if they are, it's because Hamas stole all the food. The latter claim was recently debunked by Israeli military officials – not natural allies of Palestine Action – and Netanyahu finds himself challenged by a rainbow coalition of the United Nations, Germany, China, a former Israeli prime minister, several retired heads of security, the Pope and Piers Morgan (sublime and the ridiculous united at last). Bibi is reported to have argued with General Eyal Zamir, the chief-of-staff of the armed forces. It seems Right-wing Israelis are more willing to take a stand against Netanyahu than nervous foreign diplomats are. If Zamir is anti-Semitic, the Pope's not a Catholic. In the United States, the New York Times, hitherto soft on the Gaza operation, has become a forum for dissenting voices, and Zohran Mamdani, the pro-Gaza candidate for New York mayor, leads among Jewish voters. Liberals are rethinking their historical alliances; there is disquiet on the religious Right, too. Evangelicals will always love Israel: it's Jesus's hometown. There's growing concern, however, that Israel might not be so hot on Christians. In July, settlers carried out an arson attack on the last Christian-majority town in the West Bank. That same month, Gaza's only Catholic church was hit by Israeli tank fire, killing three (Netanyahu apologised for what looks like a genuine accident). 'Desecrating a church, mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God,' wrote the US ambassador, Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist. Senator Lindsey Graham, also of that parish, said, 'What's happening in the West Bank bothers the hell out of me.' A cynic might detect more bother at the damage to Christian property than there ever was at the flattening of Muslim hospitals, a double-standard as old as sin. Why did Britain throw open its doors to almost anyone with a Ukrainian passport yet appears reluctant even to admit children from Gaza? Ethnic preference. On the other side of the fence, Israel can argue that it is a multi-faith society doing its best to protect the Druze in Syria, while Palestine has so few churches for a sinister reason. Christians enjoy far more rights under Israel than they would under Hamas. Nevertheless, reports of atrocities during the Iraq civil war woke US Christians up to the perilous state of their faith in the Middle East, reduced to a tiny population dependent upon benign neglect within a threadbare ethnic tapestry. Netanyahu threatens to disrupt that fragile order, while his governing coalition imagines a 'Greater Israel' that hints at cultural chauvinism. The regime is overplaying its hand, transforming the civil rights case for Zionism (Jews need a homeland) into an open-ended military endeavour that is infinitely more controversial and expensive. If Trump is reluctant to bankroll the borders of Ukraine, why would he do it for Israel? The compromise of America's interests and reputation has already begun with the US-backed food distribution programme – accused of gross inefficiency, even of soldiers firing at civilians. Trump's connection with Israel is heartfelt. It is personal, it is philosophical. Netanyahu's belief that nations have the right to defend themselves, is a Zionist Maga. One of the administration's first acts was to lift sanctions on settlers. Within months, settlers had beaten a US citizen to death in the West Bank; a second died following an arson attack. The President is no moralist but he has a healthy moral gag reflex, hence when asked if Palestinians are starving, he said, yeah, they probably are – influenced, it seems, by Keir Starmer. Netanyahu demanded a conversation; Trump reportedly disliked being lectured about fake news and shouted down the phone that the hunger is real. Hail to the chief. His observation to journalists that 'we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing,' remains the single best expression of global frustration I've heard, worth chiseling onto Mount Sinai. And if Trump is some kind of liberal snowflake, maybe the Pope is a Lutheran. Trumpism hinges on the strategic realignment: get America out of places it doesn't need to be, let strong allies fill the vacuum. But Netanyahu is forcing upon him the most intractable, expensive problem of all, a humanitarian crisis, and he'll only make it worse if Gaza City is next. Will Trump really tolerate such an escalation? Will his constituency – starting to contend with its Christian conscience – forgive the bloody consequences? The Israelis have always advised Palestinians that if they don't want to be killed, they should just pack up and move. But as the war completes its hideous march to the Mediterranean Sea, one wonders where they are supposed to go. There's only so much room on Greta's yacht.


North Wales Chronicle
26 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Proscribing Palestine Action has 'empowered' far-right, say protesters
An organiser of the Friends of Al-Mawasi group, based in Hastings, East Sussex, said the UK Government has 'empowered' extremists by trying to 'demonise' Palestine supporters. In July, Hastings Borough Council passed a motion to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all arms sales to Israel and to support the town's friendship links with the people of Al-Mawasi – a section of the Gaza Strip. Last month, at a fundraising walk, there were multiple alleged incidents of verbal and physical abuse from counter-protesters which were reported to the police. A woman, waiting for the demonstrators at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, was pushed to the ground and called a 'f****** terrorist' for wearing a keffiyeh, while a Jewish man, whose father escaped the Holocaust, was repeatedly called a Nazi by Israel supporters. Both incidents were reported to Sussex Police after the walk on July 20. On Sunday, roughly 100 protesters ran a second fundraising walk from Hastings beach along the coast to Bexhill 'in defiance' of the abuse. Grace Lally, who helped set up the group and campaigned for the town to twin with Al-Mawasi, believes there is a 'clear link' between the Government action and the abuse. She said: 'Those extremists have been empowered by a Government that says, people supporting Palestine are terrorists, d'you know what I mean?' Ms Lally added: 'The reason it's being challenged in the court and the reason the court has given permission for a judicial review to be held is because of the chilling effect of that ruling which blurs the line between protest and terrorism.' She said it did not matter that the Government had only proscribed Palestine Action rather than all protesters. 'That (the decision) I think has emboldened people on the far-right, extremists, to sort of see anyone who's supporting Palestine as a legitimate target,' Ms Lally said. On Saturday, more than 500 people were arrested in central London for showing support for Palestine Action. Richard Wistreich, a member of Jews for Justice Hastings, was one of the demonstrators who faced abuse in the July fundraising march. He told the PA news agency that cars had parked on their route to Bexhill, with a couple of people waving Israeli flags and shouting abuse as the protesters passed by. Mr Wistreich, whose father escaped Poland in the late 1930s, said: 'At one point one of them got out of the car and saw my T-shirt, which made it quite clear that I am proclaiming myself to be Jewish. 'So I was then very loudly told that I was not a Jew and in fact I was a Nazi, in a very, very aggressive manner.' The woman wearing the keffiyeh, who wishes to remain anonymous, said a man approached her on the pavilion aggressively and said 'that scarf', which she ignored. She said: 'I wasn't responding to him at all because he looked so angry and then he went 'you're a f****** terrorist' and then he proceeded to grab the scarf and pull me close to him.' The woman said she tried to get his hands off her, but he pushed her to the ground and she hit her head, before two people intervened and pulled the man off her. On Sunday afternoon, the protesters were wary of further incidents but bolstered by much greater numbers, and the vast majority of passers-by seemed supportive. A few made comments which the protesters ignored. Before the walk, Green Party councillor Yunis Smith said: 'We may see some people trying to antagonise us, cause issues, trying to be abusive, aggressive, offensive, let's remember the strength, perseverance and patience that our Palestinian brothers and sisters have when we face this.' When links between the towns were first set up in 2022, Al-Mawasi, located in western Khan Younis, was a rural farming and fishing town with a population of 12,000. According to the United Nations, there were 425,000 displaced Palestinians living in the area as of June 19, and the protesters said the figure is now closer to 600,000. Israel is obliged under international humanitarian law to ensure adequate and safe shelter for internally displaced people, as well as access to food, water, and medical care, until they can return to their homes. A United Nations report released in June said that Israel had not made 'any effort' to comply with those laws since its offensive began. 'I can't understand how anybody, regardless of your political persuasion, can see this level of injustice and not break inside, I just don't, I don't get it,' said councillor Smith. Ms Lally said it was 'bittersweet' to have the council finally twin with Al-Mawasi given the devastation in the area, but still felt it was a positive step. 'Palestine is made up of communities of people and those people, they're not going away, they will rebuild, this will end, there will be a future for them and twinning sort of is just a testament to that,' she said.