Visiting Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, where he met hostage families including Liran Berman, brother of hostage twins Ziv and Gali Berman, and former hostage Doron Steinbrecher, was “sobering”.
Tice has been involved in a scheme pairing MPs with hostages and was twinned with 24-year-old pianist Alon Ohel, a German-Serbian-Israeli citizen and the youngest hostage remaining in Gaza. Last week, Hamas released a propaganda video showing Ohel, who has gone blind in one eye after nearly two years of captivity, alive.
Richard Tice and Mandy Damari at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Mandy's daughter, Emily, was taken hostage on October 7 2023[Missing Credit]
Tice also visited the site of the Nova music festival massacre, where Ohel was kidnapped, and spoke to survivors of the deadly attack. He went to Kibbutz Kfar Aza with Mandy Damari, the British-Israeli mother of released hostage Emily, who was taken hostage from her home on the kibbutz.
He described seeing Gaza from a distance from a service station close to the border and “hearing gunfire, hearing weapons being fired and what sounds like bombs or shells being fired”.
Tice in Hostage Square with released hostage Doron Steinbrecher[Missing Credit]
At the Kerem Shalom crossing, Tice said he witnessed a “busy crossing and trucks arriving by the dozen”.
"I stood amongst pallets and pallets of avocados, bananas, onions, flour, sugar, tomatoes, and I saw them being loaded very rapidly and efficiently onto trucks that then take them through to the other side of the border.”
He claimed that what he saw appeared to be “at odds” with how some media outlets report the flow of aid into Gaza. “Let's be honest. They didn't just open the crossing for me. This was a busy crossing,” he said, adding that he will be talking about the crossing in the Commons when Parliament reopens after the recess.
Tice met survivors from the Nova festival[Missing Credit]
Following the kibbutz visit, Tice met senior Israeli political figures, including President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and tech entrepreneurs. He said Herzog appeared “very engaged with what is going on in UK politics” following his much-protested visit to London earlier this month.
Israeli politicians, Tice said, had expressed “strong disappointment” at “the wrong stance that UK government has taken with regard to the recognition of a Palestinian state”, and had criticised sanctions against ministers and the halting of free trade negotiations.
He added that the leaders he met “recognised and appreciated” Reform UK’s pro-Israel position and its criticism of the UN.
Tice accused the UK of “complete abandonment and betrayal” of Israel, citing a motion passed at the Labour conference this week, accusing Israel of genocide.
“As I said to the Israeli foreign minister and to the president, we [Reform] stand rock solid with Israel.
“Israel is our strong, longstanding ally, and we've got huge opportunities to share our knowledge of intelligence, of defence tech, financial services, great opportunities to change our countries.”
"Different countries have different challenges at different times,” he said, adding that the UK should support Israel “when support is required against brutal terrorists”.
Also on the domestic front, Tice confirmed that Reform’s campaign against the use of Sharia courts in Britain would not affect Beth Din and ruled out the party calling for a ban on kosher slaughter following calls from Rupert Lowe MP, formerly of Reform UK but now sitting as an independent.
Tice saw the mass aid operation at the gates of Gaza[Missing Credit]
Back in Israel, during the seismic week of deal negotiations in Washington, Tice sensed a deep feeling of “prayer and hope that this can work”.
He added: “It is a difficult thing to say, but most wars and conflicts do end up in some form of difficult compromise as opposed to total defeat. Hamas had been dramatically reduced... this is a moment for them to say we'll accept the deal, otherwise we will be out.
“There will be some people who say it's a compromise too far, but we must get the hostages back, every single one... Hamas must have no further role in anything to do with the governance and running of Gaza.
"We've just got to hope and pray... I don't think anybody's claiming that [the deal] is perfect, but it is one of those cases where, don't make perfect the enemy of the good.”
And, on Qatar’s role in the negotiations, he went on: “The reality is in life, often sometimes you do business with people that you don't like.”
He dismissed critics of the deal, saying they “need to get a grip. Come and hear it [Gaza]. Talk to the brave young soldiers in the IDF, who've lost brothers, who've lost uncles and grandparents slaughtered at Kafar Aza”.
Richard Tice at the Western Wall in Jerusalem[Missing Credit]