The UK, France and Canada threaten Israel

[Whatsinanamehey]

"The leaders of Britain, France, and Canada on Monday threatened action against Israel if it does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions"

"We have always supported Israel's right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate," the three Western leaders said in the joint statement, adding that they will not stand by while Netanyahu's government pursues "these egregious actions."

My personal opinion is once again it is too little, too late. However I'm interested to hear opinions on what exactly this threatening action would consist of?

What has caused these governments to issue such a statement now and not before? The blockade of aid has been ongoing for more than two months. Why didn't they say take further action earlier?

Lastly, will this statement have any effect on the Netanyahu extremist government? Or will they brush it off as they usually do? I'm not sure as these are three powerful allies who have so far been quite wishy washy with their condemnation.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/uk-france-canada-threaten-israel-against-gaza-offensive-2025-05-19/

You say they care about the optics so how does it help the optics for people to starve?

I think they care because they are human beings and even if one person makes a crass comment about “optics” he doesn’t represent what everyone else thinks.

I apologise for how I worded that @Bobolonson

My personal opinion is that while Germany do have a lot to feel guilty about historically ( so does Britain) there are generation of Germans now who do not have to feel responsible for “the sins of the fathers”.

I can understand Germans feeling guilty because of their dark history against Jewish people. But I agree we should acknowledge history but move forward from it so I’m sorry I made that throwaway comment.

Tbf the German foreign minister has made comments about being concerned about the humanitarian situation, too many civilian deaths etc but it's all abit wishy washy and nothing robust.

I agree @twiglets1 that it's very unfair to call our government obsessively anti-Israel. Our government is anything but that and have been aiding Israel with Intel from the RAF flights. Netanyahu has big daddy Trump so he thinks he can shit on everyone else who has helped Israel if they don't play to his tune.

Apologies if this has been posted but I missed that the EU will review the trade agreement with Israel. Again too little too late but at least there is some proper pressure on Israel now which could save some lives.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/05/20/eu-to-review-its-trade-and-cooperation-with-israel-over-gaza-offensive

Regarding the trucks being unloaded and re-loaded they used to have to do that when they were allowed in from the Rafah crossing at one point. They would have to drive to the kerem shalom entry, unload the entire truck, wait for inspection and often refusal over petty things like dual usage items, reload, drive back to Rafah crossing and then allowed entry. And it never used to take more than a day to do so that can't be the reason. The IDF are holding up by delaying the permission to do this for hours on end which is the hold up.

They were going to end it yesterday but Israel 'diplomacy' stopped them. Shameful.

I have just read BBC Live feed which suggests the same

"UN teams inside Gaza were unable to collect the aid on Tuesday after waiting several hours for the Israeli green light to access the holding area."

Trucks are still stationary on the other side. This update was less than an hour ago.

With all due respect you may still like to give Israel the benefit of the doubt but for most that ship has sailed long ago. They are running out of time to save lives but they are delaying, delaying, delaying no sense of urgency to save starving children. It is sick, it is calculated, done with the excuses.

Is this some sick sort of psychological warfare? Allow the trucks in to give them hope that their children will finally have something to eat then don't give permission for the food to be distributed?

@ComeAsYouAreAsAFriend I just think it's more feasible that Israel are delaying distribution out of security concerns than that "they don't care if people die" as @kirinm suggested.

Israel is at war with Hamas not the civilians of Gaza, though many civilians have been killed as a direct result of this war.

Maybe I do like to give Israel the benefit of the doubt as you suggest but I genuinely expect the aid will start to be distributed today.

It should have been distributed yesterday. Honestly twiglets you have been on this board for so long yet you still maintain that it's only against Hamas. Do you not see that even some Israeli air force pilots are getting stressed that the strikes they have been ordered to carry out are killing hundreds of Palestinians and not justified. These are pilots who are trained to kill. How can you not see?

@Twiglets1 well lets hope you are right and I am wrong. UN said 48 hours to save starving babies that was over 24 hours ago.

It needs to remembered as well that when a child is severely malnourished you can't just feed them it is a process that needs to be done carefully and with medical supervision (no chance of this), they need to be fed and rehydrated with great care. The longer the delay goes on, even if aid gets to children before they die, the damage caused by malnutrition is already done especially since they will not have access to hospital care to help with their rehabilitation.

I guess the food aid will be distributed when Israel runs out of excuses not to give it to them.

Or maybe they can recognise a frenzy being whipped up.
Aid is going in, hamas are being sidelined, peace is being brokered by Arab states, maybe those thousands displaced in Israel can also return. Maybe hamas, hezbollah and the houthis can stop firing rockets into israel.

All said with such confidence

frenzy being whipped up
How minimising. Thankfully many other countries and organsiations are taking the situation seriously and no people are not being whipped up into a frenzy there are real concerns about malnourished starving children but you stick your head back in the sand

Aid is going in
Not enough and not yet distributed.

I do believe the war is only against Hamas.

A lot of civilians are getting killed in the process of defeating Hamas and that is a different issue - whether the IDF should stop attacking areas where they believe Hamas are hiding when there are also many civilians in the same area.

I’m not surprised Israeli pilots are getting stressed and some will no doubt suffer PTSD after the war. It’s a well known phenomenon of war and they are humans at the end of the day despite attempts by some to dehumanise them.

Ex Israeli ministers are condemning Israel. There can’t be any argument that they’re pro-Hamas!

Is there anything that Israel could do that you would think is a step too far? Or is it always going to be Hamas that are responsible for Israel’s conduct in your view?

I'm tired of your questions that always paint me in the worst light.

As I have pointed out now a boring number of times (and apologies to others for the repetition) I am against the fact that Israel have blocked humanitarian aid for as long as they have, and have stated this on multiple threads.

So Yes to directly answer your tedious question @kirinm , I do think Israel have gone too far in blocking aid for as long as they have done.

Germans in 2025 have nothing to feel guilty about (though they do: we hosted German students for several years. Pretty much all of them, 16 and 17 year olds, had apologised about the war and the holocaust within an hour or so of arriving with us. It’s drummed into them. Ridiculous.)

How long are they to be held accountable for the actions of their forebears?

But surely you know that Israel delivered 5-6 months worth of Aid into Gaza in Feb/March to cover the period of Israel setting up it’s own distribution hubs (which the corrupt UN rejected) after rightly refusing to work with UNWRA?

There was enough aid in Gaza. There is no starvation, other than that which is orchestrated to demonise Israel which is yet to be evidence of. Hamas is responsible for stockpiling and stealing Aid.

This is all utter bullshit, like most things that come out of Gaza.

Shocking how people are taken in, even you now.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one @AIBUHere

Even if there technically is enough food in Gaza it doesn't appear to always be reaching the right people because I have seen images of children that seem malnourished. So more needs to go in and be properly distributed, in my opinion.

@twiglets1 There's no winning for you on either side is there 😂 just some light humour I don't mean it in a bad way.

I appreciate the humour @Whatsinanamehey 😂

This visual might help some posters. On the left is how much aid used to enter Gaza daily before the war which the UN have said is needed to meet the needs of the people. On the right is how much entered on Monday (not clear if it has still been distributed) one can deduce from this how little aid is remaining or not remaining at all after two months+ of the blockade.