Israel: Rishi Sunak arrives in country for two-day visit with plans to meet with Middle East leaders

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has landed in Israel to commence a two-day visit of the country, during which he will meet with Middle Eastern leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sunak will hold talks with Netanyahu, as well as the country's president Issac Herzog as the war with Hamas rages. The Prime Minister is also set to visit a number of different capitals in the Middle Eastern region in relation to the violence seen in both Gaza and Israel over the past few weeks.

He is set to urge leaders to "avoid further escalation" in the conflict, which began with a surprise large-scale attack by Hamas on Saturday 7 October and has seen Israel retaliate with airstrikes on the Gaza region and a "complete siege" with fuel, food and electricity cut off to the region's population. Sunak will tell leaders that "too many lives have been lost" in the conflict so far.

Sunak said on X (formerly Twitter): “I am in Israel, a nation in grief. I grieve with you and stand with you against the evil that is terrorism. Today, and always.”

It comes after US President Joe Biden made a trip to Israel on Wednesday 18 October. He had hoped to speak to both leaders in Israel and other Arab countries, however anger over the US's response to an airstrike on the al-Ahli Hopsital in Gaza saw a meeting with Arab leaders in Jordan scrapped.

UK's security minister Tom Tugendhat told Time Radio that the cause of the talks being called off was as a result of "irresponsible speculation" over the source of the hospital blast, which has reportedly killed at least 500 people. Israel has denied responsibility for the attack, claiming that the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad is instead to blame.

Tugendhat said: "Let’s be clear that the reality is there were beginning of talks promised between President Biden and some Arab leaders, and irresponsible speculation led to some of those leaders walking away as they thought that it would be unacceptable to discuss such matters after Israel had been accused of this attack. It now appears that that was at best speculation and at worst propaganda by a terrorist organisation.”

During the US President's visit, Biden told Israel that it should not be "consumed" by rage in response to the Hamas attack, adding that the country should avoid making the same "mistakes" the US made in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While he was unable to meet with Arab leaders, Biden made somewhat of a breakthrough with President Netanyahu, as shortly after their meeting, Israel agreed to open the border between Gaza and Egypt to allow the flow of humanitarian aid.