At least 100 people travel to Israel from UK to join fight against Hamas

At least 100 people are believed to have travelled from the UK to Israel to serve in the Israeli military as it mounts a retaliatory campaign against Hamas.

The Israeli Embassy in the UK said it was understood those who travelled were “reservists and active duty soldiers” in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

A statement said: “The Embassy of Israel understands that at least 100 reservists and active duty soldiers have gone back to Israel from the UK to serve in the IDF”.

The announcement came as family members of some of those held hostage by Hamas in Gaza gave an emotional press conference in London.

Noam Sagi told reporters he should be celebrating his mother’s 75th birthday but she had been kidnapped by Hamas, branding the attacks a “second holocaust”.

He said: “These are peace-loving people who fought all their lives for good neighbouring relationships.

“If they will die for peace, they will take it. If they will die for war, that will be another travesty.”

Concerns remain high for the safety of British citizens in the region as the war, ignited by a bloody and wide-ranging Hamas attack on Israel at the weekend, has already claimed at least 2,400 lives.

At least 17 UK nationals are reported to be either dead or missing, including children, with Jake Marlowe, 26, the latest to be confirmed among three known to have died in the incursion by Hamas fighters on Saturday.

And the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which has said family members of British diplomats are leaving Israel as a “precautionary measure”, has advised against all but essential travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The international outrage over the atrocities continued on Thursday, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex condemned “all acts of terrorism and brutality”.

Harry and Meghan stopped short of singling out sides in a statement on their Archewell Foundation website and vowed to support efforts to send urgent aid to the region.

The Sussexes’ statement came a day after the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales condemned the “barbaric acts” and appalling “horrors” inflicted in Hamas’s attack on Israel.

Under the title With Heavy Hearts, the statement on Harry and Meghan’s Archewell site read: “At the Archewell Foundation, with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we stand against all acts of terrorism and brutality.

It’s really obvious now that Hamas are essentially laying a trap for Israel and will be well pleased if Israel commits itself to an open-ended, full-scale ground invasion of Gaza

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has insisted Israel has “the right to do everything it can” to rescue hostages in Gaza, amid reports the country is preparing to launch a ground offensive.

Asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain whether he has fears over the level of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza and concerns there may be breaches of international law, Mr Barclay said: “We think international law obviously should be followed and civilian casualties should be minimised.

“But we should also be very clear that the reason for this situation is because Hamas has taken hostages into Gaza and the Israeli Government has the right to do everything it can to rescue those hostages.”

But the former head of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, urged Israel not to do “what your enemy wants” and said its intense retaliation could end up creating more terrorists.

Sir Alex told BBC Radio 4’s The Today Podcast: “It’s really obvious now that Hamas are essentially laying a trap for Israel and will be well pleased if Israel commits itself to an open-ended, full-scale ground invasion of Gaza.

“Because of the scale and intensity of conflict that that would entail and the loss of innocent life that would inevitably follow, and the radicalisation that would engender and the extent to which it would put Israel’s allies and partners in the region in an impossible position.”

He added: “You cannot kill all the terrorists without creating more terrorists.

“And military operations of this kind very, very rarely succeed outside some kind of political strategy.”

International aid groups said deaths in Gaza could accelerate as Israel prevents the passage of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory and after the region’s only power station ran out of fuel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said hospitals in Gaza risk turning into morgues when their generators run out.

There have been calls for corridors to be established to allow aid in and civilians out.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Thursday and offered the UK’s support to try to keep the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza open for humanitarian reasons, Downing Street said.