Lord Cameron said both men had “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”.
Earlier this year, Smotrich suggested it might be “justified and moral” to starve Gazans and has called for Palestinian residents to leave and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.
Asked why the planned sanctions did not go ahead, Lord Cameron, who was foreign secretary between 2023 and 2024, said he had been advised that it would have been “too much of a political act” during the election.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has condemned comments by the Ben-Gvir and Smotrich as “entirely unacceptable”.
Speaking at a Labour conference event, external last month, he said: “We are very worried about escalatory behaviour, about inflamed tensions.
“I’m absolutely clear, if we have to act, we will act. I’m in discussions with G7 partners, particularly European partners, on that. I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that is kept under close review.”
