Philip Hammond

The British public has a strong sense that the situation of the civilian population in Gaza is intolerable and must be addressed — and we agree with them.

But what has struck me most looking at my own constituency in-box as well as the thousands of emails that I’m receiving from the general public here is that it isn’t just the Muslim community that’s reacting to this. It’s a broad swathe of British public opinion that feels deeply disturbed by what it is seeing on its television screens coming out of Gaza.

We understand that Israel has concerns, we understand that Hamas has concerns. We are not saying we’re not interested in those.