People mourn relatives killed in an Israeli strike as they sit next to a blood-stained gurney at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on May 26, 2025.    (Photo by AFP)

London, May 28 (RHC)-- Britain's trade envoy to Israel Ian Austin has toured occupied Haifa despite claims by the UK government of  suspension of its trade talks with the regime over the genocidal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In an X post on Tuesday, Austin said he is in the occupied territories to "meet businesses & officials to promote trade with the UK."  The controversial visit raised questions among journalists and observers about London's policy toward the Tel Aviv regime. 

Austin's trip came a week after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that negotiations over a new free trade deal with Israel have been paused, calling for an end to the occupation's blockade of aid into Gaza.

In a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Lammy said Israel's plan for a major military assault against Gaza is “morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counterproductive.”

He also strongly condemned Israel's attempts to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza as extremist, dangerous, "repellent" and "monstrous."

The top UK diplomat further said wider talks about a future bilateral strategic roadmap with Israel were being reviewed, noting that the actions of the cabinet of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "have made this necessary.”

Additionally, he denounced Israeli settler violence in the West Bank and imposed sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against three individuals and four companies who were "carrying out heinous abuses of human rights."

Meanwhile, the UK's Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer summoned Israel’s ambassador to London Tzipi Hotovely to the Foreign Office in reaction to “the wholly disproportionate” expansion of Israeli attacks on Gaza.  Israel’s foreign ministry accused the UK of having an anti-Israel obsession.

Israel launched its genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

More than 19 months into its brutal onslaught, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives in Gaza despite killing at least 53,977 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 122,966 others.