The British Foreign Secretary is putting pressure on Netanyahu to open channels for more aid to Gaza.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Wednesday increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to allow more channels for humanitarian aid into Gaza, British officials said.

Mr Cameron made the case during a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem before traveling to the West Bank to meet Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Netanyahu spoke after their meeting. Briefing journalists, British officials said the foreign secretary would urge the Israeli leader to allow more aid to flow into Gaza, where rising civilian casualties have become an acute concern in London.

Cameron's tour of the Middle East, which will also include stops in Turkey and Qatar, came two days after Britain joined the United States in the latest round of airstrikes on locations controlled by Houthi militants in Yemen. US and British officials are trying to halt attacks by the Houthis, who say they stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza who have disrupted vital international shipping lanes.

Mr Cameron's pleas to Israelis, like those of President Biden and his aides, have not yielded much results, and on Wednesday he found a defiant Israeli leader joining much of the country in mourning the deaths of 24 Israel Defense Forces. soldiers in the Gazan city of Khan Younis.

“We will continue to fight with determination to defeat the ruthless enemy we face,” Netanyahu said Wednesday in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel's Knesset. “We will continue to secure our national revival.”