Lord Cameron says he was set to sanction 'extremist' Israeli ministers

David Cameron today revealed how he was poised to slap sanctions on two 'extremist' Israeli ministers during his final days as foreign secretary.

The Tory peer said he had been 'working up' sanctions against Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Taking action against the two men would have put 'pressure' on Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to act in line with international law, Lord Cameron said.

The ex-prime minister made a dramatic return to Westminster in November last year when he joined Rishi Sunak's government and took charge of the Foreign Office.

He was foreign secretary until the Tories' general election loss in July and spearheaded Britain's response to the Middle East crisis.

Lord Cameron urged the Labour to 'look again' at sanctions, as he claimed the new Government made a 'mistake' in suspending some arms sales to Israel last month.

Speaking to the BBC, Lord Cameron described Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir as 'extremists' and pointed to their comments about Gaza and the West Bank.

'When you look at what they say, they have said things like encouraging people to stop aid convoys going into Gaza, they have encouraged extreme settlers in the West Bank with the appalling things they have been carrying out,' he said.

Asked why sanctions against the two men had not been imposed, Lord Cameron said he had been advised the move would have been too 'political' during an election.

Mr Smotrich was recently criticised for appearing to suggest it might be 'just and moral' to withhold food aid from Gaza, while Mr Ben-Gvir has backed the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

In August, Mr Ben-Gvir was condemned for a 'deliberately provocative' visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound - known to Jews as Temple Mount - which is viewed as Jerusalem's most-contested holy site.

David Lammy, Lord Cameron's successor as Foreign Secretary, has criticised both men but declined to commit to sanctioning them when urged to do so during a House of Commons debate last month.

Lord Cameron told the Government to 'look again at the sanctions issue', arguing that his was a better way of pressuring Mr Netanyahu than suspending arms exports to Israel.

He said: 'I thought the Government made a mistake over the arms embargo because, fundamentally, if you are, on the one hand, protecting, helping to protect Israel from a state-on-state attack by Iran, but at the same time you are withholding the export of weapons, that policy makes no sense.'

Arguing that it was 'right to back Israel's right to self-defence', Lord Cameron said that support was not 'unconditional' and the Government should be prepared to use its sanctions regime against 'extremist' ministers 'to say this is not good enough and has to stop'.

In February, the Conservative government did sanction four 'extremist' Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.