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Progress has been made on a deal towards a ceasefire and sending more aid into Gaza, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Friday.
A phased approach to releasing Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in return for a break in hostilities and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel was being considered, he said.
He made his remarks in Istanbul on the same day that the UN’s International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take all measures to prevent genocide against Gazans.
“Achieving a pause where we stop the fighting and start looking at how to get aid in and hostages out, I think there is a prospect of that. I think we are making some progress,” Lord Cameron said.
“I was pressing for what I think is in everyone's interest, including Israel's interest: to have that immediate pause because it's only then that you can bring the hostages back home.”
Lord Cameron said Israel was also considering a British proposal to open the port of Ashdod to aid shipments to Gaza, but it would “take a lot of pushing” to reach an agreement.
He said he had met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and political leaders in the West Bank as well as Qatar.
In his meetings in Israel, Lord Cameron said he stressed the need for a pause in fighting.
The war began after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured more than 240 hostages on October 7.
Gaza officials said on Friday the death toll from Israel's military campaign in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave has risen to more than 26,000.
Shortly after Lord Cameron spoke in Istanbul, the ICJ ordered Israel to do more to help Palestinian civilians and said the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating”.
Court president Joan Donoghue said the ICJ was “acutely aware of the extent of human tragedy unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continued loss of life and human suffering”.
It did not rule at this stage on the core of the case – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza – but it recognised the right of Palestinians to be protected from acts of genocide, which it described as “plausible”.
At least 500 lorries of aid a day are needed in Gaza and opening up the port at Ashdod, a short distance up the coast from Gaza, would help, Lord Cameron said.
“Ashdod opening would be another massive way of getting aid in, and it's actually essential that we get that aid in,” he said.
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Palestinian Muhammad Al Durra with his children in the ruins of a house in Rafah where they sheltered on January 11, 2024. EPA -
Family and friends at the funerals of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Getty Images -
Palestinians mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a mortuary in Khan Younis January 4, 2024. AP Photo -
Displaced Palestinians queue to bake bread at a camp in the Muwasi area of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on December 23, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, on December 20, 2023. AP Photo -
The ruins of Rafah on December 14, 2023. AFP -
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on December 8, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians flee Israeli bombing along the Salaheddine Road in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city on November 28, 2023. AFP -
A Red Cross vehicle takes Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in Rafah on November 25, 2023. AP -
The ruins of buildings in Gaza city on November 24, 2023, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect. AP Photo -
A woman and her cat return home to eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas forces on November 24, 2023. AFP -
Mourning the dead of Israeli bombardment outside the mortuary at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on November 14, 2023. AFP -
Civilians and rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building after Israeli bombing of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023. AFP -
November 7, 2023, a month to the day after Hamas attacked Israel, a victim of an Israeli bombardment in Rafah is moved from the rubble. AFP -
Searching the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023. AP Photo -
Mourning the Kotz family at their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, on October 17, 2023. AP Photo -
An Israeli firefighter composes himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians with the wreckage of an Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of the city of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces swept unopposed into Israel. AP Photo -
Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. AP Photo
“I made the case to the Israeli government, they are considering it, but I know that it's going to take a lot of pushing before we get that fixed.
“I want to see every bottleneck be removed. Israel is responsible for what happens in Gaza, and we need to avoid more of a humanitarian catastrophe.”
