Signs and plaques at the British consulate in East Jerusalem were removed overnight as Israel’s shutdown order expires.
Israel ordered the premises shut by Thursday following Westminster’s plans to impose sanctions on settlements in the West Bank, further damaging strained ties between the two countries.
Eyewitnesses saw workers in the consulate remove a plaque reading “British Consulate General” and another sign for its consular section.
The British flag was still flying over the building as dawn broke over Jerusalem.
GB News has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
Israel ordered Britain to close the consulate within 30 days and remove its diplomats from the city after Labour announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including a trade ban on goods made there.
The United Nations and most countries consider the settlements to be illegal under international law, something Israel strongly disputes.
Israel has been adamant the consulate will close even as Britain sought to keep it open, including sending the country’s top national security adviser to Israel last week for talks.
The consulate, established in 1838 over 100 years before the State of Israel came into existence, manages UK relations with Palestinians in the city, the West Bank and Gaza.
It is a separate mission from the UK embassy in Tel Aviv, the country’s main diplomatic interface with Israel.
Israel will stop short of expelling the diplomats and sending them and their families home, reports The Times.
Instead, the diplomats will be instructed to work from the main British embassy in Tel Aviv.
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. Despite the current strains, the UK and Israel remain close economic, security and intelligence partners.
The British sanctions announcement and Israel’s order to close the consulate mark a new low in a relationship that has deteriorated over the past three years.
Labour has repeatedly criticised Israel over its actions in the war in Gaza and over Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has accused Britain’s governing Labour Party of being hostile towards Israel.
The retaliation has come after the UK accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Both Israel and the US criticised the UK’s stance, which involves a ban on imports from illegal settlements in the West Bank and sanctions on individuals and firms providing services to settlers.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the Commons that a “new approach” was necessary because plans for the E1 development in the West Bank would render a two-state solution “unviable” by “cutting through the heart of Palestine”.
Mr Miliband also said there is increasing evidence that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.
Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the attacks on October 7, which saw Hamas-led militants invade Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 others hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has since killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of Gaza and driven most of its two million residents from their homes.
A number of student pro-Palestine demonstrations took place, despite calls for a ban or for the protests to be moved to a different date.
Around 100 pro-Palestine protesters marched and chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Free the people, free the land” in London, with a group at the back of the march holding a banner reading: “Holocaust survivor descendants against Gaza genocide”.
Counter-protesters holding Israeli flags and placards reading “Stop the Gaza genolie” gathered by Russell Square.
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