Grant Shapps calls on Israel to ‘flood Gaza with aid’ and end conflict

THE best way for Israel to show it is complying with international law is to flood Gaza with aid, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has urged.

He said “given the level of human suffering” it was vital to end the bloodbath conflict.

He called on the Hamas terrorists behind the Oct 7 slaughter in Israel to accept a “generous” hostage deal as a first step towards a longer peace.

Speaking to the Sun’s new World At War show he said: “Bringing this to a conclusion is absolutely essential.

“It’s in the Palestinian people’s interest.

"It’s in Israel’s interest is in the world’s interest to see that happen.

“And the route to that is by releasing hostages, the thing which started all of this.”

It comes amid fears in Israel that PM Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant could be issued with arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr Shapps said: “Israel has a right to her own self-defence, but she has to do that in a way which is compatible with international humanitarian law, in the way that all democratic, civilised nations must.

“We’ve said the same in public and in private.

“I say it to Yoav Gallant, the Prime minister says it to Netanyahu, the foreign secretary to his opposite number: whatever you do, you have to make sure your actions are compliant with international law’.”

He added: “One of the best ways for Israel to demonstrate compliance is to have aid flowing.

"I want to see Gaza flooded with that aid to help people, not just with food, but with medicines and much else.”

Netanyahu has vowed to assault the city of Rafah – where a million refugees are sheltering – with or without a hostage deal.

And he said it the ICC issued arrest warrants against him and his top lieutenants it would be “scandal on a historic scale”.