Israel will work together with the international community to weaken Hamas, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday.
“This is an Israeli, Palestinian, regional and international interest that will strengthen stability in the Middle East and reduce the threat to residents of Israel,” Ashkenazi said.
Raab arrived in Israel on Tuesday night for a one-day visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah to discuss the truce between Israel and Hamas, reached last week after 11 days of fighting. The Foreign Ministry described it as a “solidarity visit.”
Ashkenazi’s comments come as international donors to the Palestinians, such as the US and EU, are working with Israel on a mechanism to give humanitarian aid and rebuild Gaza without the aid getting to the Hamas terrorist organization.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jerusalem: “If we do this right, reconstruction and relief for the people of Gaza, far from empowering Hamas, has the potential to undermine it. I say that because Hamas thrives, unfortunately, on despair, misery, desperation, on a lack of opportunity... Hamas’s foothold in Gaza will slip. We know that, and I think Hamas knows that.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Raab and thanked him and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
Raab said to Netanyahu that he is “here as a friend, with great support for Israel.... You can always count on us.”
Ashkenazi thanked Raab for British support during Operation Guardian of the Walls and the UK’s condemnation of Hamas rockets on Israeli civilians and use of human shields.
As Raab arrived in Israel on Tuesday, he called for “genuine progress towards a more positive future for both Israelis and Palestinians, and [to break the] cycle of violence that has claimed so many lives.”
Ashkenazi called on the UK to declare Hamas a terrorist organization, in order to weaken its sources of funding, and asked Raab to help bring about the release of Israeli MIA soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul and civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
The foreign minister also pointed to the threat posed by Iran and its proxies to the entire Middle East, as indirect talks between Iran and the US to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, to which the UK is a party, continued in Vienna.
“There is a connection between Iranian nuclear violations and its actions undermining stability in the region.... The Iranian UAV sent into Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls came from the same place as the UAVs that attack coalition forces [in Iraq],” he said, adding that Iran destabilizes the entire Middle East and encourages violence and terrorism.
“The international community must prevent Iran from attaining nuclear capabilities, without a time limit,” Ashkenazi said.
The Iran deal’s restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity would expire in about a decade, which is one of the reasons Israel opposes a return to the agreement.
The ministers also discussed bilateral ties between Israel and the UK, with an emphasis on trade and fighting COVID-19.
Israel was one of the first countries to sign a trade deal with the UK as it left the European Union, and the two countries are working on an updated agreement to increase cooperation between them.
Next week, the foreign ministers of Hungary and Portugal, which holds the EU presidency until June 30, plan to visit Israel.