JERUSALEM: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday after visiting the south of the country to see for himself the communities affected by last month’s Hamas attacks.
Britain’s Foreign Office said former prime minister Cameron, who was appointed to the foreign policy brief last week, was due to meet Palestinian leaders later to discuss the way forward in the crisis.
“I wanted to come here in person ... to see just the true nature of the horrific attacks that you faced, I think that’s very important to do that and see that, we stand with the people of Israel,” Cameron told Netanyahu.
Cameron’s visit came as war raged on in Gaza, with a proposed truce and release of hostages delayed for at least another day.
“It’s important we talk about this potential humanitarian pause. I think it’s an opportunity to crucially get the hostages out and to get aid into Gaza,” Cameron added. “I hope everyone who is responsible and behind this agreement can make it happen.”
Netanyahu said getting the hostages out was “not without its challenges” but Israel was committed to getting everyone out.
“But we’ll continue with our war aims, namely to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas has already promised that they will do this again and again and again,” he said.
“There’s no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel and the Arab states, if we don’t eradicate this murderous movement that threatens the future of all of us.”
Earlier Cameron, wearing a flak jacket, toured damaged buildings in Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, telling reporters he had “heard things and seen things that obviously I will never forget.”
Cameron met counterparts from Arab and Islamic countries in London on Wednesday to discuss the conflict.
Both British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Cameron’s predecessor James Cleverly have visited Israel since fighting began last month.
UK’s Cameron meets Netanyahu, visits southern Israel
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UK’s Cameron meets Netanyahu, visits southern Israel
- Cameron was due to meet Palestinian leaders later to discuss the way forward in the crisis
- “I wanted to come here in person ... to see just the true nature of the horrific attacks that you faced,” Cameron told Netanyahu
The West Bank soccer field slated for demolition by Israel
- The move is likely to eliminate one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play
BETHLEHEM: Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, eliminating one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play.
“If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field, the camp does not have spaces,” said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls’ soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The Israeli military issued a demolition order for the soccer field on December 31, saying it was built illegally in an area that abuts the concrete barrier wall that Israel built in the West Bank.
“Along the security fence, a seizure order and a construction prohibition order are in effect; therefore, the construction in the area was carried out unlawfully,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Mohammad Abu Srour, an administrator at Aida Youth Center, which manages the field, said the military gave them seven days to demolish the field.
The Israeli military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves. If they do not act, the military steps in to destroy the structure in question and then sends the Palestinians a bill for the costs.
According to Abu Srour, Israel’s military told residents when delivering the demolition order that the soccer field represented a threat to the separation wall and to Israelis.
“I do not know how this is possible,” he said.
Israeli demolitions have drawn widespread international criticism and coincide with heightened fears among Palestinians of an organized effort by Israel to formally annex the West Bank, the area seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel accelerated demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps in early 2025, leading to the displacement of 32,000 residents of camps in the central and northern West Bank. Human Rights Watch has called the demolitions a war crime. Israel has said they are intended to disrupt militant activity.
