Palestinian woman sits in a debris-strewn street as she looks at houses which witnesses said were damaged in an Israeli air strike that killed two children, in the northern Gaza Strip
A Palestinian woman sits in a debris-strewn street as she looks at houses which witnesses said were damaged in an Israeli air strike that killed two children, in the northern Gaza Strip July 24, 2014. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Britain has warned Israel that the West is getting less sympathetic to the Jewish state and its offensive in Gaza.

The recently appointed British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about what the West felt about its cause. Hammond held a joint press conference with Netanyahu and warned that the civilian casualty in Gaza "gravely concerned" Britain. Hammond earlier asked Israel to "prevent unnecessary loss of civilian life" due to its invasion in Gaza. The number of deaths in the conflict has already climbed to 750 in Palestine while 32 Israeli soldiers were also killed in the conflict.

Hammond, meanwhile, disagreed with the United Nation on its claim that Israel might have committed war crimes in Palestine. The British politician earlier met with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, and asked for finding a "stable solution" to the Israel-Palestine crisis.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, said that Britain should identify with Israel's state of affairs as it had gone through similar situations against Hitler's regime. "There has only been one other instance where a democracy has been rocketed and pelleted with these projectiles of death, and that's Britain during World War II," he said.

According to reports, Israeli leaders compare their fight against Palestine with that of Britain against the Nazis during WWII. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Hamas was acting like Hitler's army to exterminate the Jews.

Meanwhile, an Israeli rocket strike on a UN school in Gaza killed at least 16 who took shelter there. It happened in the northern part of Gaza on Thursday, July 24. The Gaza Health Ministry said that around 200 people had been injured in the strike. This is the fourth time during its offensive in Gaza that Israel attacked a UN facility.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay earlier accused Israel of committing war crimes as it did not take much care for protecting the civilians. The majority of the 750 Palestinian casualties so far are women and children.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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