Starmer urges restraint in call for Middle East to ‘step back from brink’

Sir Keir Starmer urged Israel to show the “courage of restraint”, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighs up how to retaliate against the ballistic missile attack on his country, while Hamas and Hezbollah launched further rocket barrages.

On the anniversary of the October 7 massacre by Hamas in Israel, which triggered a wave of bloodshed across the region, Prime Minister Sir Keir stepped up calls for the release of the hostages taken to Gaza.

And he urged all sides to “step back from the brink” and find a political solution, with immediate ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon.

In a sombre Commons statement, Sir Keir warned the entire region was on the brink of a wider war.

Sir Keir said the ballistic missile attack on Israel launched by Iran was “not a defensive action” but “an act of aggression and a major escalation in response to the death of a terrorist leader” – a reference to the killing of Hezbollah’s  Hassan Nasrallah.

“We support Israel’s right to defend herself against Iran’s aggression in line with international law,” Sir Keir told MPs.

But he added: “The region cannot endure another year of this.

“Civilians on all sides have suffered too much. All sides must now step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint.”

He said Hamas’ actions on October 7 were supported by Iran, which played a “malign role” in the region, also backing Hezbollah and the Yemen-based Houthis.

On October 7, 15 British citizens were “brutally slain” and another has since died in captivity, Sir Keir said.

Referring to the remaining British hostage, Emily Damari, saying: “We could hardly imagine what hostages like Emily are going through nor what the families are going through, the agony, day after day.”

But he said the first anniversary of the October 7 attack was also a “day of grief” for the wider Middle East.

“Over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, tens of thousands orphaned, almost two million displaced, facing disease, starvation, desperation, without proper healthcare or shelter.

“It is a living nightmare and it must end.”

In Lebanon, where Israel is mounting an offensive in response to Hezbollah attacks, Sir Keir repeated the call for Britons to leave.

Some 430 have been flown to safety on UK Government charter flights, and plans have been drawn up for an emergency evacuation if the situation deteriorates further.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary David Lammy paid tribute to the Jewish community across the country as he visited a north London synagogue.

Mr Lammy told reporters: “This  is a painful day for the Jewish community across this country and across the diaspora.”

He added: “It is a day of deep reflection and pain thinking about October 7, the worst attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust.

“And of course, thinking about the many hostages that are still held in Gaza and their loved ones and their pain.

“And particularly we think of Emily Damari, the British hostage, and her family have no word of her fate or how she is doing.”

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Israel has “a duty to destroy Hamas”, when it was put to him the country has gone beyond defence and is now in offence.

Speaking on LBC, he said: “They’re an evil terrorist organisation.”