The British Foreign Secretary is pressuring Netanyahu for more aid for 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.

Mr Cameron made the case during a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem. On Thursday morning, he said in a statement that he had told Mr Netanyahu that more border crossings into Gaza needed to be opened to allow more trucks in.

“The scale of suffering in Gaza is unimaginable,” Cameron said. “We need an immediate humanitarian pause to get aid in and hostages out, followed by a lasting ceasefire, without a return to hostilities.”

After the meeting in Jerusalem, Mr Cameron traveled to the West Bank to meet Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. On Thursday he was in Qatar, where he spoke with the Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and said the two countries were jointly sending tents to Gaza to shelter displaced people.

The rising number of civilian casualties in Gaza has become an acute source of concern in London. But 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 Israeli defense officials. Force soldiers in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza.

“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.”

Mr Cameron and Mr Netanyahu have a history of diplomatic relations dating back more than ten years. When Mr Cameron was prime minister, the Israeli leader called him a “true friend of Israel”, although the two have differed in the past over Gaza and Israel's settlement policies.