LONDON: Israel’s attacks on Palestinians have “got to stop,” the UK’s health minister has said.

Wes Streeting denounced Israel’s ending of the two-month ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza as “soul-destroying,” adding that airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave “can’t be justified as self-defense.”

Israel restarted operations in Gaza last week. The territory’s health authorities say nearly 700 people have died since then, the majority of whom are believed to be women and children. It brings the total number of deaths in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, to more than 50,000.

Streeting told The Guardian at a live event on Tuesday that the UK government has used “every diplomatic lever available” to end the “bloody war,” but he still feels “powerless” in the face of renewed Israeli aggression in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I find it soul-destroying seeing the breakdown of the ceasefire and the impact we’re seeing on innocent human lives,” he said.

“I was looking back at some photos just this morning of a place called Susya in the West Bank, which has been under threat of demolition by the Israelis for many years and now is on the frontline of settler violence.

“This is completely unjustifiable. It’s completely intolerable. It doesn’t serve in Israel’s self-interest. It can’t be justified as self-defense, and it has got to stop.”

He added: “It’s very frustrating … feeling powerless in the face of this appalling conflict which does nothing for Israelis or Palestinians.”

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 18 said the renewed strikes on Gaza were “only the beginning.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned the “appalling loss of life,” saying it is “difficult to see” how Israel’s actions “can be compatible with international humanitarian law.”

DUBAI: The Sudanese army is encircling Khartoum airport and surrounding areas, two military sources told Reuters on Wednesday, another key development in the ongoing two-year conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The army seized control of the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum on Friday, marking a major gain in a war that threatens to partition the country. The army had long been on the back foot but has recently made gains and has retaken territory from the RSF in the centre of the country.
The RSF has mainly stationed its forces in southern Khartoum to secure their withdrawal from the capital via bridges to Omdurman, witnesses told Reuters.
The UN calls the situation in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with famine in several locations and disease across the country of 50 million people.
The war erupted two years ago as the country was planning a transition to democratic rule.
The army and RSF had joined forces after ousting Omar al-Bashir from power in 2019 and later to oust civilian leadership.
But they had long been at odds, as Bashir developed Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and the RSF, which has its roots in Darfur's janjaweed militias, as a counterweight to the army, led by career officer Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.