Ed Miliband has said he is not “definite” that sanctions on West Bank settlements will work, a week after he announced the measures.
The foreign secretary said the government was trying to “cut off the supply lines of British finance … (and) construction” to help stop illegal settlement expansion.
Miliband also said he felt “a sense of frustration” that Britain cannot do more on Gaza, as he said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making Israel “less secure” with his policies on Palestine.
It came after Miliband’s announcement last week, which saw him introduce a ban on imports from settlements and sanctions on individuals and firms providing services to settlers.
This, he stated, was partly prompted by the issuing of tenders for the E1 settlement block, which he told MPs would render the two-state solution “unviable” by “cutting through the heart of Palestine”.
However, speaking to former Labour communications director Alastair Campbell and former Conservative minister Rory Stewart on their podcast, The Rest is Politics, Miliband said he was not certain the action – taken jointly with France, Canada and nine other nations – would work.
He said: “Can we have an impact on the settlement expansion? We believe we can with the sanctions regime, because what we’re trying to do is to cut off what you might call the supply lines of British finance, British construction, and so on to help settlement expansion.
“Will it definitely succeed? I can’t say it’ll definitely succeed. Does it have a chance of succeeding, particularly with other international partners acting? Maybe it does. That’s the whole intention behind it.”
Turning to the issue of the Gaza War, he went on: “It’s so terrible what is happening. Obviously, I think it is important to say this.
“All of us condemn in the strongest terms the murder that Hamas did on October 7, but nothing can justify what has unfolded in Gaza since then.
“I feel a sense of frustration that we can’t do more on Gaza. We are taking humanitarian action. We want to do more.
“We are going to extend our sanctions regime to breaches of international humanitarian law, which could potentially help us to take action in Gaza.
“But really, while Israel is in control of so much of the territory, while the Trump 20-point peace plan is not being implemented, the situation on the ground is terrible.”
He also denied Britain was trying to influence the Israeli elections, which are due to take place on October 27, with its sanctions, but did say: “We are trying to send a very clear message really to the Israeli people to say, look, the international community is not going to stand by as this occupation proceeds.
“With all the settler violence, settler terrorism, with essentially the elimination or the attempt to eliminate a two-state solution, we can’t give up. There is no alternative. By the way, security for Israel, I think, is reliant on a two-state solution.
“Netanyahu is not making Israel more secure. He’s making it less secure.”
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