UK foreign secretary David Cameron says halting arms sales to Israel would strengthen Hamas

LONDON (AP) — Halting arms exports to Israel is “not a wise path” and would only strengthen Hamas, Britain’s foreign secretary said Sunday.

Asked whether the U.K. would follow the U.S. in threatening to cut the supply of offensive weapons to Israel if it carried out an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the two countries cannot be compared because unlike the U.S., Britain supplies a very small amount of Israel’s weapons.

“The U.K. provides less than 1% of Israel’s weapons and it’s not a state supplier,” Cameron told the BBC on Sunday. “We have a licensing system and those licences can be closed if it’s judged there’s a serious risk of a serious international human rights violation.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has said that his government will stop supplying weapons and artillery to Israel if its forces launch an all-out assault on Rafah, the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.