British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has failed to describe the Israeli killing of a Palestinian man carrying a white flag as a “war crime.”
In a question at the House of Commons, the Scottish National Party's (SNP) Westminster leader Stephen Flynn raised a fresh ITV footage which showed an unarmed Palestinian man, carrying a white flag, being shot and killed by the Israeli forces.
“Last night as Tory MPs were, once again, fighting amongst themselves, the public were sat at home watching John Irvine of ITV News report on footage from Gaza of an unarmed Palestinian man walking under a white flag being shot and killed by the IDF. Prime Minister, such an act constitutes a war crime, does it not?” Flynn asked.
Sunak dodged the question and said Foreign Secretary David Cameron was in the Middle East this week and was urging Israel to abide by the rules of war in international law.
“We've been absolutely consistent that international humanitarian law should be respected and civilians should be protected. I've made that point expressly with to prime minister Netanyahu and the Foreign Secretary is in the region this week making exactly the same point.”
Flynn took to the floor once again and called on the house and the prime minister to name the Israeli action a “war crime.”
The prime minister then skipped the specific incident and said “no one wants to see this conflict go on for a moment than necessary and we do want to see an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause to get more aid in, crucially, the hostages out, helping create the conditions for a sustainable cease-fire.”
