‘What happens in Gaza, will happen everywhere’: Palestinian ambassador warns Israel will not stop without intervention
A.Israel is preparing to invade parts of southern Lebanon, weeks after warning it would seize the region, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK has warned that what is happening in Gaza is only the beginning for the troubled region.
Israel says it needs to create a buffer zone similar to Gaza in Lebanon in order to fight Hezbollah and keep its lands safe.
Thousands of Lebanese have already been housed in tents, and UN calls for Lebanon’s territorial integrity to be respected appear to have gone unheeded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Iran war, launched jointly with the United States a month ago, was the realization of a “40-year-old dream”.
But Lebanon’s deputy prime minister expressed concerns in the region on Thursday It could create a new humanitarian crisis, such as the war-torn Palestinian region.
The writing was always on the wall, says ambassador Husam Zomlot in an interview with The Independent at the new Palestinian embassy in London.
“Israel is always looking for an enemy because they don’t want to deal with the biggest elephant in the room, which is the Palestinian people,” he explains when asked about the current crisis in the Middle East.
“We have been warning the world for years. If this can happen in Gaza, it can happen elsewhere. Here you go.”
The US stated that it followed Israel’s lead in entering the war against Iran and preventing attacks on US military bases in retaliation for Israeli attacks; these claims were later denied by both countries.
Whatever its motivation, the ongoing war has nevertheless wreaked havoc across the region, roiling oil markets and halting shipments around the world.
Netanyahu said this week that his attack on Lebanon was Israel’s “expanding of this security strip to keep the anti-tank weapons threat away from our towns and our lands.”
“We’re just creating a bigger buffer zone,” he added. Independent He contacted the Israeli military for comment.
With over a million people displaced in Lebanon and thousands killed and injured across the region, Mr Zomlot warns that the “culture of impunity” practiced in Gaza has now led to a blatant disregard for diplomacy and order.
“This is it,” says a long-time critic of Israel and advocate of Palestinian statehood. “We have said many times: What happens in Palestine does not stay in Palestine, what happens in Palestine spreads to the whole world.”
The UK Embassy in Palestine, formerly the UK Mission to Palestine, is based in a modest office in a side street in Hammersmith, in the west of the capital. Previously operating as a charity, it was upgraded to embassy status in January 2026 after the UK recognized the state of Palestine in September 2025.
But getting to this point hasn’t been an easy journey. In November 2023, staff reported numerous attacks and death threats. The Met Police said they were investigating the cases. “hate incidents” at that time.
In November 2025, masked activists approached the entrance holding British and Israeli flags and vandalized the building with stickers reading “I love the IDF (Israeli Defense Force)”. Guard reported, Mr. Zomlot requested diplomatic protection.
All of this took place amidst an increasingly tense climate in the UK, where the impact of the problems in the Middle East continues to reverberate in the UK.
Since the Hamas massacre in October 2023 and the subsequent deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, Britain has seen a rise in both anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents; the latter including a recent attack on ambulances serving the Jewish community in London.
Mr. Zomlot knows something about the personal cost of the bitter struggle for Palestinian self-determination.
Born in 1973 in the Shaburah refugee camp in Rafah, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, this conflict formed the backdrop for much of his life.
He studied at Birzeit University, LSE and SOAS, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. Returning to the UK in 2018 after serving as the representative of the Palestinian Mission in Washington, he was recalled and sent to London when the US embassy was moved to Jerusalem.
The politician has since become one of the region’s most visible representatives in the west.
During Israel’s two-year military offensive in Gaza, his wife’s 7-year-old cousin, Sidra Hassouna, made headlines around the world after a harrowing image of her body hanging on a wall went viral at the same time as the American Super Bowl was broadcast in February 2024, sparking dismay at the contrast.
The diplomat lost countless more members of his family in the war, and in an interview with the BBC in October 2023, he said: “My cousin is not Hamas. These children are not Hamas.”
He believes that the path to peace lies in international law and domestic policy consistent with the UK’s legal obligations, if the political will exists to implement it.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 on war crime charges, including starvation as a method of warfare.
Netanyahu’s office called it “an antisemitic decision…equivalent to the modern Dreyfus trial,” referring to the 1894 trial of a French Jewish artillery officer who was wrongfully convicted of treason due to antisemitism and later exonerated.
Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and wrong actions and accusations against it by the international criminal court, a prejudiced and discriminatory political institution.
“The law is the law,” Mr. Zomlot said. “We need to respect these rules. You can’t be picky when it comes to legality.”
But annexation plans, illegal settler activity and violence have proliferated in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s plan to break up the E1 region there will further fragment plans for a Palestinian state.
“The United Kingdom and the international community need to take concrete steps now,” the ambassador said. “We are reaching the point of no return”
It refers to UN Security Council resolution 2334, issued in December 2016, and International Court of Justice ruling 2024, regarding the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory.
“What I am arguing with you about the necessary action is not a political demand, but a legal obligation,” he says.
He believes that sanctions, suspending trade talks and canceling export licenses to Israel would be the first steps.
Palestine is now recognized as a state by 147 of the 193 UN member states, and several countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, took official steps last year. Mr. Zomlot says it was a nice gesture, albeit too late.
“If your political policy is to believe in a two-state solution, why did it take you so long to recognize the other state?”
More than 72,134 people have been killed in Gaza, almost half of them women and children, according to local officials. Thousands more are missing and suspected to be under rubble.
“What happened in Gaza is not an earthquake or a tsunami. This is a human-made genocide committed by the occupying power, Israel,” he says.
Israel has vehemently denied committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, contrary to reports from groups including the United Nations and Amnesty International.
“It is very important that Gaza is rebuilt by the Palestinians,” the ambassador emphasized. “Gaza is one of the oldest continuous human communities in the world. It has a rich and ancient history. All we want is: Israel to get out. Leave the rest to us.
“The main issue in the region is the Palestine issue. If you solve this, you can establish a stable regional order.
“The only issue is Palestine. It is a prerequisite for peace and stability in the region. It is time.”
