Huckabee accuses UK gov’t of ‘Jew hate’ over claim Israel blocking medicine from Gaza

www.timesofisrael.com/huckabee-accuses-uk-gov-of-jew-hate-over-claim-israel-blocking-medicine-from-gaza/

British foreign secretary claims children in Gaza are dying while waiting for medical treatment, prompting anger from both US and Israel, which denies his account (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90, Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP) US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee bashed British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Saturday and accused the UK government of having “lost it,” after the Labour lawmaker published a video discussing allegations of Israel blocking the entry of medication to the Gaza Strip. 

The Foreign Ministry also responded to Miliband and denied that Israel was preventing Palestinians from accessing medical treatment. 

Miliband, in the video published on Friday, says he attended a meeting on the “horrific” healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip, where he said he was told about “medicines being blocked” from entering, and of “children dying while waiting for vital life-saving treatment.” 

Huckabee, in response to Miliband’s video, said, “the Brits have lost it.” 

“The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts, Huckabee wrote on X, declining to note that Miliband is Jewish. 

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, denied that Israel was blocking medicine from entering Gaza or that it was preventing Palestinians from seeking medical treatment abroad, and insisted that Miliband was “well aware of all this.”

 “If the Foreign Secretary were interested in facts rather than stories, he would know that there are no restrictions whatsoever on the entry of medicines into the Gaza Strip, and that no medicines are being blocked,” wrote the Foreign Ministry on X. 

It added that “22,500 tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began” in October 2025, and that in the past two weeks alone, 200 Palestinians have exited the enclave for medical treatment. “The UK is a member of the International Gaza Support Center, which facilitates the delivery of medical aid to the Gaza Strip,” the Foreign Ministry added, referring to the US-led coordination center in Kiryat Gat.

Miliband was appointed foreign secretary in mid-July by Prime Minister Andy Burnham and has since called for a “comprehensive reset” of British policy toward Israel. Miliband is the son of Jewish refugees.

The clash comes as relations between Israel and the United Kingdom have deteriorated further over Jerusalem’s controversial E1 settlement project, which would impede territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers.

Israel is reportedly considering expelling British representatives from the Gaza coordination center amid growing tensions between London and Jerusalem over E1.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that Israel “will act against” Britain if it follows through on threatened measures against settlements, saying Jerusalem has “tools” at its disposal.

British media have reported that Burnham’s government is considering a complete ban on trade in goods from Israeli West Bank settlements as part of its response to E1.

The Kiryat Gat center has itself become part of the dispute. Britain said last month that removing its representatives from the US-led International Gaza Support Center would “undermine” efforts to improve conditions in Gaza.

London said it maintains a presence there at the request of the United States and the US-backed Board of Peace and works alongside Israel, international partners and UN agencies to support implementation of the American postwar plan for Gaza. A source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Israel was weighing expelling the British officials and considering “other measures” against London.

The threat against the British delegation followed a similar step against the Netherlands. Sa’ar announced in late August that Dutch representatives would be removed from the center after what he described as a series of “anti-Israel measures” by The Hague.

The planned E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah — long considered the basis of a future Palestinian state. 

The project was frozen for years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations, which feared that building a new settlement neighborhood on the mostly empty tract of land would rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

Supporters of the E1 settlement expansion say they want to block Palestinian statehood. Last month, the government opened bidding for the construction of seven residential compounds with 1,234 housing units in the E1 area, after greenlighting construction of roughly 3,400 units last August.

Miliband called the plan “unacceptable and destructive” in a written statement last month, and said his office was working to prepare a “comprehensive set of measures” in response, including sanctions against “those who participate in illegal settlement expansion.” 

Sa’ar hit back at Miliband, calling his statement “patronizing,” and accused the British government of contributing “to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community” and harming the UK-Israeli relationship.