Israel has detained and deported two British members of parliament, refusing them entry as part of a parliamentary delegation, according to the United Kingdom foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed flew from London to Israel on Saturday and were rejected because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred”, Sky News reported, citing a statement from the Israeli immigration ministry.
Lammy said in a statement that Israel’s actions were “counterproductive, and deeply concerning”.
I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” he said.
“The UK government’s focus remains securing a return to the ceasefire and negotiations to stop the bloodshed, free the hostages and end the conflict in Gaza,” Lammy added.
Yang and Mohamed said in a joint statement they were “astounded” by the decision.
We’re astounded at the unprecedented step taken by the Israeli authorities to refuse British MPs entry on our trip to visit the occupied West Bank,” they wrote on X.
“It is vital that parliamentarians are able to witness first-hand the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
They added: “We are two, out of scores of MPs, who have spoken out in parliament in recent months on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the importance of complying with international humanitarian law.
Parliamentarians should feel free to speak truthfully in the House of Commons, without fear of being targeted.”
Last year, Israel declared United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “undesirable”, prohibiting him from entering the country. Two members of the European Parliament were also denied entry in February.
Killing medics
The detention of the British MPs comes as Israel faces backlash after a phone video from one of the 15 Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces last month contradicted Israeli claims that the victims’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in southern Gaza.
The footage shows the Red Crescent and the Palestinian Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier.
Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire, which goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses, the video shows. Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a UN staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23.
The Israeli military earlier said it opened fire on the vehicles because they were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year found claims that Israel was perpetrating genocide in Gaza were credible and ordered it to refrain from any acts that may amount to such a crime.
Geoffrey Nice, a top British human rights lawyer and lead prosecutor at Slobodan Milosevic’s 2002 trial, has called on the international community to put more pressure on the Israeli government to fully explain its role in the medics’ killings in Gaza.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Nice said “it would be very hard to believe” that those involved in the massacre of the medical workers were “rogue elements” of the Israeli military.
“When you have the people, who can send the bulldozers and their diggers, the people who send out the public relations information, which turned out [to] be false, it is very hard to believe that this is a rogue element,” he said.
“If it is not a rogue element, then what’s being done is in accordance with the practice and accepted practice within the [Israeli army], and that’s going to be something very difficult to confront. Without better justification, or any justification, this is a terribly serious war crime,” Nice added.
Since renewed military operations on March 18 ended a short-lived ceasefire with Hamas, Israel has pushed to seize territory in Gaza and killed 1,309 people, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
