DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - APRIL 2: A view of debris of destroyed al-Bashir Mosque following the Israeli attacks in Hakar al-Jami area of Deir al-Balah, Gaza on April 2, 2024. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Britain should stop sending weapons to Israel, a former UK national security adviser has said.

Lord Ricketts made the intervention after the killing of aid workers in an Israeli strike on Monday.

Three UK citizens were among seven workers for the World Central Kitchen food charity killed in Gaza.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Ricketts said “yes we’ve reached that point” where arms sales should be suspended.

“Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this. And I think - I hope - that this awful incident will serve that purpose,” he said.

Ricketts served as national security adviser to David Cameron when the now-foreign secretary was prime minister.

“I think there’s abundant evidence now that Israel hasn’t been taking enough care to fulfil its obligations on the safety of civilians,” he added.

“A country that gets arms from the UK has to comply with international humanitarian law.I think the time has come to send that signal.

“It won’t change the course of the war, it might send a powerful political message. It might just stimulate debate in the US as well which would be the real game-changer if the Americans began to think about putting limits, restrictions on the use of American weapons in Israel.”

It came after Rishi Sunak told Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu he was “appalled” by the killing of the aid workers, in a sign of a growing split between the two allies.

Downing Street said Sunak “demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation into what happened” and described the situation in Gaza as “increasingly intolerable”.

Britain is a staunch ally of Israeli, but Sunak has become increasingly critical of the conduct of the war. He is under pressure to suspend UK arms exports to Israel.

He told Netanyahu that “Israel’s rightful aim of defeating Hamas would not be achieved by allowing a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.

The UN says at least 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war so far.

James Henderson, 33, and John Chapman, 57, were named as two of the Brits who had died in the bombing. On Tuesday night, a third was named as James Kirby by the BBC.

Netanyahu has acknowledged that the country’s forces had carried out the “unintended strike” on “innocent people in the Gaza Strip”. He says officials are “checking this thoroughly” and “will do everything for this not to happen again”.

Footage showed the bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Those killed also included an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian, according to hospital records.

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