UK's Gaza role is dismissed

ISRAEL has rejected a UK Government Cabinet minister's claim that the UK played a "key role" in securing the Gaza ceasefire, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer prepared to join other world leaders at a peace summit on the Middle East.

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Trucks carrying aid enter Gaza through the border crossing from Egypt at Rafah, Egypt, yesterday

(ALI MOUSTAFA/GETTY IMAGES)

Israel's deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, yesterday said she would "have to contradict" the assertion that Britain had been a leading player "behind the scenes", after Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson hailed the UK's efforts towards ending the war in Gaza, where a fragile truce was holding yesterday, following an agreement brokered by United States President Donald Trump.

"We have played a key role behind the scenes in shaping this," Ms Phillipson told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

Asked what this contribution involved, she replied: "These are complex matters of diplomacy that we are involved, in but we do welcome and recognise the critical role that the American government played in getting us to this point." Ms Haskel later criticised the UK Government's decision to recognise Palestinian statehood, and accused Britain of diminishing the prospect of peace by emboldening Hamas, the Gaza-based militant group.