UN and aid groups ‘should use Hamas links to help free Gaza hostages’

The United Nations and aid agencies should be urged to use their links with Hamas to secure the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, Tory former leader Michael Howard has said.

The Conservative peer pointed out the organisations had been working in the territory for many years and must have “extensive contacts” with the terror group.

More than 1,400 people were murdered, over 3,500 wounded and at least 199 taken captive in Hamas’s attack on Israel.

In the resulting conflict, more than 2,750 Palestinians are reported to have been killed and 9,700 wounded in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Responding to a statement in the Lords on the escalating Middle East crisis, Lord Howard of Lympne, who had spoken with families of those kidnapped by the insurgents, said: “NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and the United Nations have understandably been vociferous in their concern for the civilian population in Gaza, but those organisations have been working in Gaza for many years.

“So they must have extensive contacts with Hamas and the leadership of Hamas.

“Will the Government urge those organisations to use their contacts with Hamas to persuade them to release now the hostages – the grandmother, the Holocaust survivor, the babes in arms, all 199 of them – in return for which Israel has said it will resume the supply of food, fuel and water to the people of Gaza?”

Lord True, leader of the House of Lords, said the British Government would “bend all its efforts” to help secure the release of those held captive.

He promised the Government “will pursue the action” suggested by Lord Howard.

Leading lawyer Lord Pannick, an independent crossbencher, said: “This is personal for me. My wife is Israeli, we have a home in Israel, we have friends who have family members who were murdered by Hamas.

“Can I ask the Government whether it agrees that the obligation of Israel to respond in a proportionate manner depends in very large part on the severity of the threat which Israel faces?

“And does the Government agree that there can be no doubt that the threat is very grave indeed, because Hamas aims not to negotiate a peace treaty, not to secure a two-state solution, but to destroy Israel.

“It has the military capacity to send thousands of missiles and we have seen it has the ability and the willingness, astonishingly, to enter Israel, to torture, to murder and to abduct its citizens, and to do so simply because they are Jewish.”

He added: “Hamas doesn’t care whether they are supporters of the Netanyahu government or supporters of a peace settlement. They don’t care whether they are religious, whether they are secular, whether they are babies or whether they are elderly ladies.

“Does the Government agree that there is no country in the world that would tolerate such a threat on its borders and that therefore a military response is the only available response to the threat posed by Hamas?

“Finally, does the Government agree that international law does not prohibit military action which sadly, regrettably, will lead to civilian deaths, especially when Hamas hides behind the civilian population.

“Does the minister agree that the essential difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas aims to kill civilians, Jews? Israel does all it can to avoid civilian deaths.”

Lord True said: “The UK stands side by side with Israel in fighting terror. We agree that Hamas can never again be able to perpetrate atrocities against the Israeli people.

“Every country is allowed to defend itself. Israel suffered an appalling terrorist attack and they have a right to respond and defend themselves.”

Former Northern Ireland first minister and DUP leader Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee said: “Terrorism can never be contextualised and I know that unfortunately first hand.”

She questioned what action would be taken to deal with the “enormous amount of people on the streets” urging backing for Hamas, which is banned in the UK as a terrorist group.

Lady Foster added: “Including in Belfast where we had the spectacle of convicted IRA terrorists asking for support for Hamas.”

Lord True said support for Hamas was illegal, but arrests were a matter for the police.

Independent crossbencher Baroness Deech, who is honorary president of the National Jewish Assembly, said she had lost a 22-year-old relative serving in the military.

“The root cause of this is Iran. It is Iran that has funded Hamas,” she said.