LABOUR leadership aspirant Wes Streeting has conceded that Israel has been committing “war crimes before our eyes” in Gaza.

But anti-war campaigners said the private admission only makes the Health Secretary the more guilty of complicity in Israel’s crimes.

A spokesperson for the Stop the War Coalition said: “Believing Israel is committing war crimes but not saying so publicly makes Wes Streeting as complicit in those crimes as Starmer, Lammy, Cooper and the rest.

“He’s only published these messages now to advance his leadership ambitions, and he’s still allowing Palantir — a US spy-tech firm that’s supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza — to run our NHS. He should be in The Hague, not the Cabinet.”

The admission by the Health Secretary, revealed in private message he exchanged with disgraced ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson, is the first time the government has conceded that Israel has breached international law.

Mr Streeting has published the messages under pressure to come clear over his links with Mr Mandelson, a fellow Blairite now under police investigation over his links with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In a text exchange in July last year, after France had announced its impending recognition of a Palestinian state, Mr Streeting floated with his friend the possibility of Britain following suit.

“Morally and politically, I think we need to join France,” he wrote.

“Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.

“Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition and we will lose,” Mr Streeting warned the then-ambassador, adding that neither he nor then Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood could oppose such a motion.

“We need to be leading the charge on this. The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the government and the party,” Mr Streeting wrote, pointing out that he had had supported Labour Friends of Israel throughout his political career.

Mr Mandelson predictably disagreed with his protege.

Mr Streeting’s admission is embarrassing for PM Sir Keir Starmer, who has been careful to avoid accusing Israel of war crimes for fear of leaving his government open to charges of abetting them.

Mr Mandelson has made no public comment on the latest allegations against him, including of leaking confidential government information to Mr Epstein, but he is understood to deny any criminal conduct.