Rishi Sunak has refused to agree with US President Joe Biden that "indiscriminate bombing" were taking place in Gaza, as he was not “privy to precise targeting” of the IDF.
Asked what a "sustainable ceasefire" - something both the prime minister and his foreign secretary have called for - entailed, Mr Sunak admitted there was no perfect formula, but it involved the release of hostages and an end to the retaliation from Hamas. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Asked what a "sustainable ceasefire" - something both the prime minister and his foreign secretary have called for - entailed, Mr Sunak admitted there was no perfect formula, but it involved the release of hostages and an end to the retaliation from Hamas. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 What are the conditions or criteria that need to be met for a sustainable ceasefire to be able to come into place?
00:05 There isn't a perfect formula for peace, right, but what I can say is that a ceasefire is clearly not going to last if hostages are still being held, and that was your first question,
00:15 and also if Hamas, whose stated aim is to destroy Israel, is still able to operate in underground tunnels and launch rocket attacks into Israel.
00:25 Biden has said that there were indiscriminate bombings taking place. Do you agree?
00:29 I've been very clear, too many innocent civilians have died.
00:33 So therefore you agree that the targeting is indiscriminate, therefore if too many civilians have died...
00:37 I'm not privy to the precise targeting, but what I can say is it's clear that too many innocent people have died in this conflict.
00:43 But you will have received advice from government lawyers and submissions. Have any of those submissions or any advice you've received from lawyers or anyone within Number 10 suggested that international humanitarian law is being broken?
00:53 We can't forget what happened. Hamas perpetrated an appalling terror attack on Israel. Innocent people were slaughtered.
01:01 And Israel has every right to defend itself, to ensure its security, make sure that nothing like that ever happens again to its citizens. We would do exactly the same.
01:12 Nobody's forgotten the crimes against humanity that took place in Israel. There's no more equivalence between the two of them.
01:17 However, whether it was Northern Ireland, where the UK police had to show restraint and ensure that civilians were not lost, that life was not out of line, disproportionate with the military objectives.
01:26 When fighting Daesh as well, Daesh did the exact same tactics as Hamas, and yet we did not see this level of casualty.
01:32 So therefore, will you do more to achieve actual restraint in some of the actions that are taking place on the ground?
01:39 We have repeatedly and will repeatedly call on Israel to show restraint, to operate within international humanitarian law.