This content was published on 20 February 2024 – 17:01
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William called on Tuesday for an end to the war in Gaza, saying the death toll in the conflict was too high.
William, the 41-year-old heir to the British throne, made this statement during his visit to the headquarters of a number of relief organizations operating in the Middle East and based in London.
His office said that these visits aim to highlight the human suffering caused by the conflict in the region.
In 2018, William became the first among the senior members of the British royal family to make an official visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. His schedule of activities for next week includes a visit to a synagogue, where he will listen to young people participating in confronting hatred and anti-Semitism.
William expressed his “deep concern about the enormous human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th.” “More numbers were killed than necessary.”
The prince added, “I look forward, like many others, to seeing an end to the fighting as soon as possible.” There is an urgent need to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. “Delivering aid and releasing hostages is crucial.”
With his father, King Charles, currently absent from carrying out his official public duties due to undergoing treatment for cancer, William is expected to undertake a number of high-level official activities.
Members of the royal family usually avoid getting involved in political issues, but William has previously spoken publicly about matters he considers important before his father became king.
International calls to end the fighting in Gaza have escalated over the past weeks as Israel prepares to expand its ground attack in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million displaced people out of a total of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza have taken refuge.
“Sometimes, it is only when we are faced with this enormous scale of human suffering that the importance of lasting peace is realized,” William said.
The Gaza war began in October when gunmen from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 253 hostage in what King Charles described as “barbaric acts of terrorism.”
Since then, the Israeli military operation that followed the attack has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
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2024-02-20 16:01:36
