Yvette Cooper: Israeli efforts to tackle West Bank violence ‘insufficient’

Israeli efforts to tackle West Bank settler violence are “completely insufficient”, the Foreign Secretary has warned.

Yvette Cooper told MPs that “stability in the West Bank is essential to any sustainable peace” throughout the region, after the UN Security Council green-lit the creation of a temporary international stabilisation force for Gaza.

“Momentum must now be maintained,” she said.

“It is essential that an international stabilisation force and trained Palestinian police can be deployed quickly to support the ceasefire and to avoid a vacuum being left which Hamas can exploit.

“We will also need the urgent formation of a Palestinian committee alongside the board of peace.”

Ms Cooper also told the Commons: “On civil military co-ordination, we have UK deployments into a dedicated US-led hub for Gaza stabilisation efforts.”

The UK has provided “some training for Palestinian police”, along with weapons decommissioning and ceasefire monitoring based on the experience in Northern Ireland, she added.

“We do not expect the UK to contribute troops to the international stabilisation force, but we are already providing military and civilian deployments into the civil and military co-ordinating committee,” she said.

Resolution 2803, to set up the international stabilisation force in line with US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, received the backing of 13 UN Security Council members in a vote earlier this week.

“Stability in the West Bank is essential to any sustainable peace,” Ms Cooper continued.

Violence has broken out in parts of the West Bank over recent days. Israeli settlers torched homes and cars in the village of al-Jab’a on Monday, while the Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem was the site of a Palestinian ramming and stabbing attack on Tuesday, Associated Press reports.

She had earlier said: “I am concerned that the PA (Palestinian Authority) faces an economic crisis induced by Israeli restrictions that are strangling the Palestinian economy.

“The (Benjamin) Netanyahu government should be extending, not threatening to end, the arrangements between Israeli and Palestinian banks – arrangements that are crucial to the everyday economy for Palestinians. It is crucial for stability, which is in Israel’s interest too.”