Britain will formally sanction two far-right Israeli ministers after they made “monstrous” comments about Gaza, it has emerged. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, will have their assets frozen and travel bans imposed against them.
The UK’s move to imopose sanctions on the two Israelis follows similar decisons by a number of countries – among them Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Benjamin Netanyahu has become increasingly reliant on the support of far-right parties to keep his fragile coalition together.
However, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have continually adopted hard line and at times controversial positions on Gaza and the Palestinians in general.
Smotrich has approved the expansion of West Bank settlements and campaigned against allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying previously he would allow “not even a grain of wheat” to enter the warzone.
Last month he said that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed” and that Palestinians will “leave in great numbers to third countries”.
For his pasrt, Ben-Gvir has advocated the replacement of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem with a synagogue and the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
“We must encourage emigration. Encourage the voluntary emigration of the residents of Gaza,” he said last year.
Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy launched a withering attack on Smotrich, after the latter suggested cleansing Gaza using Israeli troops.
“We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” he told Parliament last month.
A recent UN report calimed the 2.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza faced were on the brink of starvation, following an 80-day Israeli blockade of food, fuel and medicine.
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