Britain has not concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza but criticised “utterly appalling” civilian suffering there, in a government letter, ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Israeli president.

Asked whether the government’s legal duty to prevent genocide had been triggered, David Lammy, Britain’s foreign minister until Friday, wrote in a September 1 letter to a parliamentary committee that the government had carefully considered the risk of genocide.

“As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’,” he said in the letter seen by Reuters.

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