Daily Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire challenged the UK’s continued support for Israel, who he said was “guilty of war crimes” – pointing to high civilian casualty figures and indiscriminate attacks like the one which killed seven humanitarian aid workers on Monday.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain’s panel to discuss the day’s stories, Maguire argued “if it was Russia doing this in Ukraine” the government would “utterly condemn it” and “be imposing sanctions” asking: “Why is Israel being allowed to do this in Gaza?”
Maguire said: “There’s been 33,000 people killed in Gaza by the Israelis. The vast majority are women and children who are not combatants. It almost feels as if: if it moves, shoot and kill it. Because you’ve had so many reports, medical staff, other aid workers, families just being obliterated. The apologies have got to end. This is a war crime.”
Going on to challenge the UK’s stance in support of Israel, Maguire referenced a leaked recording obtained by The Observer and reported on Sunday which revealed the British government had received advice from its own lawyers that Israel had breached international humanitarian law in Gaza. The government has not made that information public.
He continued: “Britain has got legal advice, we believe, the Foreign Office. [Conservative MP] Alicia Kearns, chair of the All-Party Foreign Affairs Committee, said the government has got legal advice, that humanitarian law has been broken. The government should publish that advice so we can see that our government believes war crimes are being committed by Israel. And why are we still selling weapons and defence equipment and supporting Israel? Long-standing ally, but they are guilty here of war crimes.”
Maguire added: “Huge sympathy what happened on October 7th. Hamas was savage, and that in itself was a crime, what happened in Israel. But the killing and the mass slaughter of so many Palestinians and aid workers is a war crime. We can’t just keep saying: ‘Oh, look, this isn’t good enough. We need inquiries. This is terrible.’ You’ve got to act. You cannot allow this to happen.”
Comparing the UK government’s approach to other situations, specifically Russia, he said: “Can you imagine if it was Russia doing this in Ukraine? We quite rightly, utterly condemn it. You’d be imposing sanctions. We impose sanctions. Why is Israel being allowed to do this in Gaza? And it’s not just us, it’s also the Americans. They’re still supplying arms. Why is this going on?”
