Israel considers expelling UK from Gaza monitoring centre
Israel is considering expelling British officials from the US-led International Gaza Support Center (IGSC), which was established to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The move is being considered in response to Prime Minister Andy Burnham's plans to introduce stronger measures against illegal Israeli settlements.
According to the Financial Times, the Israeli government is also considering expelling Italy and Germany from the IGSC.
The IGSC is led by US military officers who work with the Israeli army and officials from dozens of countries.
This week, Israel expelled Dutch officials from the centre, over the Netherlands' recent ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements. Earlier this year, Israel kicked Spain out of the IGSC, accusing Madrid of "obsessive anti-Israel bias".
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Shortly before he succeeded Keir Starmer as prime minister in July, Burnham set the tone by apologising for the Labour Party's early support for Israel's war on Gaza and refusal to back a ceasefire in 2023 and early 2024.
Earlier this month, Middle East Eye reported that Burnham's government is poised to announce a raft of new policies on Israel in September, including a ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in particular is pushing for stronger measures and has been consulting a range of civil society organisations, MEE understands.
The Israeli government has made its anger at Britain known publicly in the past month, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branding Britain an "Islamic republic" in an interview.
Netanyahu complained that the favourable British coverage Israel received during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war had disappeared.
“Try to find that now in Britain, which you could call the Islamic republic of Britain,” Netanyahu said.
The British government denounced the comments as "completely unacceptable". British officials believe it is logical that Israel would expel them from the centre as "payback" and are not concerned about the prospect, according to the FT.
Polling by YouGov this week showed that 50 percent of Britons support a ban on trade with West Bank settlements, while only 16 percent oppose it.
Relations between Britain and Israel, which deteriorated under Starmer's Labour government, are plummeting under Burnham.
British public opinion has also been steadily hardening towards Israel. A survey in June 2025 found that 55 percent of the public opposed Israel’s actions in Gaza, with only 15 percent in support.
Of those 55 percent, an overwhelming 82 percent believed Israel was committing genocide.
The poll also found that nearly two-thirds of Britons (65 percent) wanted the UK to implement the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu if he were to visit the UK.
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