Israeli air force chief who oversees Gaza strikes visits UK

Middle East Eye

3 days ago

Israel's air force chief has landed in Britain for a conference hosted by the Royal Air Force.
Major General Tomer Bar has been in position throughout Israel's war on Gaza, and from April this year has reportedly personally approved air strikes carried out by the Israeli air force.
He landed on Thursday afternoon and is reportedly in the UK to attend the Royal International Air Tattoo event, which is held at a Royal Air Force base in Gloucestershire.
The major event at RAF Fairford, which features air shows and aircraft displays, began on Friday morning and will last until Sunday.
According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Bar will have a series of meetings with air force commanders from around the world.
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In April this year, Bar warned Israeli air force reservists not to sign a letter criticising the war on Gaza, telling them they would be dismissed from service if they did so.
A UN-backed report on Tuesday found that 10 children a day are losing one or both limbs in Gaza due to Israel's assault on the Palestinian enclave.
According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 17,000 of the 58,573 Palestinians killed since October 2023 are children and they account for 30 percent of the wounded. This number excludes thousands more missing and presumed dead.
On Thursday Luis Moreno Ocampo, the founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told Middle East Eye that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a position backed by numerous legal experts, rights groups and governments.
Parliamentarians demand sanctions
Bar's visit to Britain comes as political pressure piles on the Labour government to cease political, military and economic cooperation with Israel.
On Friday morning, 112 British parliamentarians wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Attorney General Richard Hermer.
'How many more Palestinians need to be killed or forced into starvation before our government takes the action so desperately needed?'
- Imran Hussain, Labour MP
They demanded that the government immediately publishes its response to the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on 19 July last year that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territory.
The MPs urged the government to "address the unlawful situation occurring in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories], as well its own obligations under international law".
They said the "failure of the government to publish its response" a year on from the advisory opinion, must be "rectified".
Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), said: "It is an utter nonsense that a year on from this historic advisory opinion that the government has not issued its formal response. Sources have told Caabu that the legal response was drafted months ago.
"It is also not that complex a legal document based on many previous legal opinions," he added.
"What it highlights is the government's continued aversion to hold Israel to account, its failure to uphold international law, and respect these international judicial institutions as it claims it does."
'Karim Khan did his job': Founding chief prosecutor on threats against ICC Read More »
On Thursday evening, more than 80 MPs and peers from nine political parties signed a letter organised by Labour MPs Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain urging the government to impose comprehensive sanctions on Israel.
The letter calls on the government to "suspend the UK-Israel trade agreement until Israel complies with international law" and to "ban all trade in goods and services with illegal Israeli settlements".
The MPs urged an end to all arms transfers to Israel, "including F-35 components, that can be used in violations of international humanitarian law".
Hussain said: "What is the government waiting for? How many more Palestinians need to be killed or forced into starvation before our government takes the action so desperately needed?"
Burgon said: "We need tough action to force Israel to end its atrocities against the Palestinian people. That means ending all arms sales and imposing widespread sanctions on Israel - just as were rightly imposed on Russia over Ukraine."