The UK announced that it would stop supplying Israel with some weapons, as concerns over their use in Gaza grow.
The Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament that the UK will suspend 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel.
This covers parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones, among other things.
Mr Lammy insisted that Israel had a right to defend itself and that the move did amount to a total arms embargo.
He told MPs on Monday: “It is with regret that I inform the House today the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
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“The UK continues to support Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law.”
Israel said the decision sent the “wrong message” and reminded the UK that the collective West faced an existential challenge from radical Islam.
Amichai Chikl, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs, told World Tonight on BBC 4: “I think we need to combat terrorism together.
“The fight against Isis [the Islamic State group], and al-Qaeda and Hamas, it’s the same war between the Western civilisation and radical Islam.
“The threat that is coming from Hamas is also an inner threat that you are facing in the streets of the UK.”
Now Express.co.uk is asking its readers what they think about Britain providing weapons to Israel. Do you think the UK should cut its military aid to Jerusalem?
It comes as Israeli troops recovered the bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas in their brutal attack last October.
Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) said the bodies were located on Saturday in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza.
Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an initial assessment suggested they were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.
The deaths provoked anger from families of hostages and led to a general strike and protests in Israel.
Israel’s biggest trade union, Histadrut, said hundreds of thousands of people joined the general strike it called to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
Many accuse Mr Netanyahu of blocking a deal to prioritise his own political survival – a claim he rejects.
However, US President Joe Biden said the Israeli Prime Minister was not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.
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