Gaza conflict ‘increasingly intolerable’ says Rishi Sunak as he backs Joe Biden’s ceasefire calls

Rishi Sunak has backed Joe Biden’s calls for a 6-8 week ceasefire in Gaza to allow food and medicine to go into the country, following a significant intervention from the US president overnight where he called Israel’s approach to the conflict “a mistake”.

The prime minister said Mr Biden and he were “very aligned on this” and that he had consistently called for an “immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out.”

Mr Sunak added: “We want to get aid in to help alleviate the suffering and then use that as a platform to build a sustainable ceasefire.”

His comments come on the back of building domestic and international pressure on Israel to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza mounts following the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Palestine that has seen the death of over 30,000 people and the killing of seven aid workers -including three British citizens — by Israeli airstrikes.

Joe Biden has strengthened his language on Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza as a “mistake”, in one of his strongest rebukes of the Israeli prime minister’s response to the ongoing conflict so far.

The president made the remarks during aninterview with Univision, aired on Tuesday evening, in which he said the recent missile strikes on aid convoys in the Middle East were “outrageous” and called for a halt in the fighting.

Asked during the interview whether Mr Netanyahu was “more concerned about his political survival” than the national interest of his people, the president replied: “Well, I will tell you, I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach.”

He continued: “I think it’s outrageous that those four, three vehicles were hit by drones and taken out on a highway where it wasn’t like it