LONDON — The Netanyahu government’s handling of the war in Gaza is “leading Israel to pariah status,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned Tuesday, ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the U.K.

Herzog is set to visit Britain this week “to show solidarity with the Jewish community, which is under severe attack and facing a wave of antisemitism,” according to his office.

But, Streeting, who narrowly held his north London constituency last year against a challenge from a pro-Palestinian candidate, said the Israeli president must be held accountable for the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“He needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel,” Streeting told Times Radio on Tuesday. “He needs to explain how, when we have seen so much evidence of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Israeli army, how he can possibly claim that the IDF is the most moral army in the world.”

The health secretary stressed while Hamas’ attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 “united the world in condemnation,” they could not “be answered with a level of civilian innocent loss and suffering that we’re seeing in Gaza.”

Streeting added: “This Israeli government is leading Israel to pariah status and finding itself increasingly isolated on the international stage.”

Britain’s former foreign secretary, David Lammy, wrote in a letter to International Development Committee chair, Sarah Champion, earlier this month that the government “has not concluded” Israel is committing genocide, but that the state “must do much more to prevent and alleviate” suffering.

The letter was dated before last week’s cabinet reshuffle, in which he became deputy prime minister and secretary of state for justice.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Downing Street Monday, where they agreed there would be “absolutely no role” for Hamas in the future governance of a Palestinian state. The U.K. has promised to recognize a Palestinian state ahead of the U.N. General Assembly later this month unless Israel changes course.