Karim Khan KC, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced in May that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

In late June, it emerged that the UK had made a submission to the ICC questioning whether the court has jurisdiction to issue warrants against Israelis.

The ICC subsequently agreed that the UK could file up to 10 pages of written observations on the question of whether the court “can exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals pursuant to the Oslo Accords”.

Reports at the time suggested that the UK’s intervention could delay the court’s decision on granting the warrants.

Last week, The Guardian reported that the new Labour government was expected to abandon these efforts, which were criticised by human rights lawyers.

Geoffrey Robertson KC, writing in the paper, said the “obvious reason why the foreign secretary should drop this benighted initiative is that it is a legal nonsense”.

However, Israeli daily newspaper Maariv reports that UK foreign secretary David Lammy has since assured Israeli officials that it will maintain this position.

The US government has been privately lobbying the UK government over the issue, according to Middle East Eye.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told The Jerusalem Post yesterday that the government “has only recently come to office and currently is working towards agreeing a position”.