The British government says it will suspend new free trade negotiations with Israel due to its military conduct in the war on Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days under bombardment, a new ground offensive has been launched and starvation is widespread.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the United Kingdom was imposing additional sanctions on illegal Israeli settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has also been summoned to the Foreign Office. This comes as the European Union voted to review its trade cooperation deal with Israel, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday.

The actions came a day after the UK, France and Canada condemned Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and assaults and raids in the West Bank, reports Al Jazeera.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ramped up his pointed criticism of Israel on Tuesday, saying the level of suffering by children in Gaza was “utterly intolerable” and repeating his call for a ceasefire.

As settler violence against Palestinians, backed by the Israeli army, has surged in recent months, Lammy said the persistent cycle of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank demanded action.

In addition to previous sanctions, the UK has now imposed sanctions on another “three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organisations supporting violence against the Palestinian community”, he added.

He said the UK’s existing trade agreement with Israel is still in effect, but new discussions cannot be undertaken with an Israeli government pursuing “egregious policies” in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,” Lammy said. “Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”

The UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer will also tell the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Hotovely, that “the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible”, Lammy added.

Israel quickly denounced the UK’s decision: “Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry called the UK sanctions “unjustified and regrettable”.