September 17, 2026 | 11:40 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the Israeli government is losing friends and allies over its actions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which he said have mobilized people around the world.
"The Israeli government is losing friends. It’s not gaining allies; it’s lost allies. It’s losing allies all over," Miliband said Tuesday in an interview with the UK-based podcast The Rest is Politics, as cited by Anadolu.
He said the UK's recent sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank came after warnings that the two-state solution was being "destroyed by the facts on the ground."
"All measures were to make a difference to that, the sanctions regime targeting the illegal occupation, not targeting or delegitimizing in any way the state of Israel," he said.
"The status quo is not working," Miliband said, adding that Israel's E1 settlement expansion project had long been viewed as a "red line" by the international community.
He said the project "basically would split off East Jerusalem from West Bank (which) really makes Palestinian state unviable."
Miliband cited several factors behind the UK's decision, including a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel should end its occupation, dismantle settlements and provide reparations, as well as the prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories and the displacement of Palestinians.
"We can’t give up" in the face of "settler terrorism," Miliband said, adding that he believes there can be no stable Middle East without a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis.
'Nothing Can Justify What Has Unfolded in Gaza'
"We have got to put a stop to settler terrorism, genuine terrorism, I used the term, ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists, that’s what is happening," Miliband said.
He said he thought about what his mother, who died in May, would have said before he announced the sanctions.
"She would say, 'Look at what is happening to Palestinians! Look at what is happening to these poor people; it's wrong," he said.
Miliband said he recently met a group of people, including a doctor who had worked in Gaza, and described what they told him as "absolutely unspeakable" and "appalling."
He also said Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza "seems like an absolutely deliberate strategy."
"The situation on the ground is terrible," he said. "Nothing can justify what has unfolded in Gaza."
"Since the so-called ceasefire, 1,200 Palestinians have been killed. That’s not much of a ceasefire," he said.
Miliband reiterated that the UK could not give up in the face of what he called "settler terrorism."
"We don’t know what’s going to happen in Israeli elections on Oct. 27, but we are trying to send a very clear message to the Israeli people to say, ‘look, the international community is not going to stand by as this occupation proceeds,'" he said.
The British government announced a series of measures last week, including a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, sanctions on companies and individuals facilitating settlement expansion, and additional sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers accused of supporting or inciting violence against Palestinians.
The measures are part of the UK's efforts to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.
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