Israel is considering expelling British officials from the U.S.-led coordination center for the postwar Gaza Strip amid a dispute between the two countries over an Israeli settlement plan in the West Bank.
The International Gaza Support Center is a U.S.-led multinational headquarters in Kiryat Gat, Israel. It aims to monitor ceasefires, organize humanitarian aid and plan postwar recovery in Gaza.
The Times of Israel on Thursday confirmed reports of the possible ejection.
At the center of the dispute is a strip of land in the West Bank between East Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Israel plans to build thousands of housing units along with hotels and a commercial site in the 4.5-square-mile zone known as E1.
Britain and other countries have denounced the E1 plan, saying it would isolate East Jerusalem and prevent a future contiguous Palestinian state.
“[Britain] has been clear privately and publicly in our opposition to E1 and our support for a two-state solution as the only way to ensure long-term security and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis,” British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said last week in a statement. “All settlements damage that prospect and are a flagrant breach of international law.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Mr. Miliband are also weighing sanctions and a trade embargo targeting West Bank settlements, according to multiple media reports.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he rejected Mr. Miliband’s statement and its “patronizing tone.”
“The Jewish people have the right to live throughout the land of Israel, just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom,” Mr. Sa’ar said. “It is absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live in their historic tiny homeland, when the Jewish people’s connection and right to this land is the most extensively documented of any people in human history.”
On Tuesday, Israeli officials said representatives from the Netherlands would be expelled from the Gaza support center following the Dutch government’s ban on Israeli products from the West Bank.
“The Dutch government’s anti-Israel policy has been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism and boycotts in the Netherlands,” Mr. Sa’ar posted on X. “The Dutch representatives have been instructed to leave Israel within one week.”
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