“We all know the difference between Israel and Hamas. Israel uses its rockets to defend its people, Hamas uses its people to defend its rockets”, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron stated last night.
His comments came at CFI’s Chanukah Reception at 10 Downing Street, hosted by the Foreign Secretary, which was attended by Israel’s Ambassador H.E. Tzipi Hotovely and two British families of those killed and taken hostage in the barbaric Hamas massacres of October 7th. The parents and sister of Corporal Nathanel Young, 20, who was killed defending a border community from terrorists, and Noam Sagi, son of the now-released hostage Ada Sagi, 25, attended the event.
The evening held special significance for the family of Nathanel, who as a student of Beit Shvidler, met the Foreign Secretary, then-Prime Minister at a Chanukah reception at 10 Downing Street, on a school trip.
“We’ve got to keep the pressure up until all of those hostages are released”, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron pledged. “There is never any justification for hostage taking. It reminds us what organisation we are dealing with”. “What sort of organisation takes a 75-year old woman hostage?”, he added. Lord Cameron said this was a “different Chanukah” – a “memorial for those cruelly murdered, a vigil for the hostages, and an act of defiance against antisemitism”.
“We’ve seen appalling outbreaks of antisemitism. We should not, we cannot and we must never put up with it”, Cameron said of recent protests. “Don’t these people understand that if it’s ‘from the river to the sea’ there is no Israel. That is a genocide. That is another Holocaust”.
“I’ll never forget my last trip to Israel because I went to Kibbutz Be’eri and saw those sites with my own eyes – but I also will never forget my first trip to Israel when I saw what it is that the Jewish people have achieved there over these past decades, turning desert into fantastic agricultural land, building a modern economy, maintaining – rare for that region – a robust democracy”.
This Chanukah, Cameron said that we should think of “peace for Jewish people, whether they’re in the UK, whether they’re in Israel or wherever they are in the world”. “Rededication”, a central theme of the Jewish holiday, has become increasingly poignant. “We should rededicate to the fact that we want Jewish people in Britain to feel safe, to feel loved, to feel welcome, to feel part of our country and I say this: That Britain without its Jewish community is not Britain. It will be a lesser country. It will be a lesser people. We value what the Jewish community brings to our country – the contribution that you make and I want you to feel that love tonight from everyone in our country and to drive out that antisemitism that is such a stain on our nation”.
The ceremony included the ritual lighting of the Chanukiah led by CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE and assisted by Lord Cameron. Prayers included Ma’oz Tzur; Chanukah prayers, and Mi Shebeirach L’tzahal; the prayer for the IDF. Lord Polak said that while Chanukah was “bittersweet” “lighting candles in Downing Street is quite special”.
H.E. Tzipi Hotovely spoke powerfully about the critical support of the UK, thanking CFI and the Government for their fundamental work. She underscored that the 7th October massacre “changes us forever”.
A number of Conservative MPs and Peers, and CFI Directors, also attended the event, including CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE who chaired the event, CFI Parliamentary Chairmen Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP (Commons) and Rt. Hon. The Lord Pickles (Lords) CFI Parliamentary Vice Chair Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiars MP, and many others.
Foreign Office Minister: “There is no place for Hamas”
Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell has today said that “there is no place for Hamas” in any future Palestinian governance of the Gaza Strip. He asked “how do we address the causes of what happened on October 7th, and the fact that a pogrom was imposed by Hamas killing so very many very Jewish People”. On Israel-Arab cooperation, Mitchell said that “before these terrible events on October 7th, there were new partnerships with Israel developing across the Middle East – one thinks particularly of the Emirates and Bahrain”.
Foreign Minister David Rutley said: “Iran bears responsibility for groups they have long supported”. The Government has “stepped up” responses to recent proxy attacks, the Minister added, describing how “HMS Diamond will bolster [the UK’s] maritime presence in the region and [a] new Iran sanctions regime will soon be in place”. The move will grant the UK “greater powers to designate Iranian activity”.
CFI Parliamentary Vice Chair Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP said that “the regime in Tehran have been blatant and public, even unapologetic about their backing, funding, arming of Hamas – these terrorists who we now know are not just murderers, but rapists as well” – before calling on the Government to “snap back the full range of sanctions on Iran”, together with “a wider number of officials in Iran, and to proscribe the IRGC”.
CFI Parliamentary Officer Bob Blackman CBE MP condemned the “sexual and physical violence” committed against now-freed hostages formerly held in Hamas captivity. “Individual hostages were drugged to make them look happy” upon release, he added, calling the terror organisation’s treatment of the victims “inhumane”. Blackman urged the International Red Cross to be afforded the opportunity to visit the hostages. “We are doing everything we can to secure their release”, responded the Foreign Minister.
Chris Clarkson MP raised Hamas’ “attempted genocide of the 7th of October, and the cynical use of Palestinian civilians as human shields”, arguing that “kidnappers, murderers, and rapists… Hamas, cannot be involved in [future] negotiations”.
Conservative MPs support Israel in Urgent Question
In an Urgent Question in the House of Commons yesterday, CFI Parliamentary Vice Chair Andrew Percy MP raised the words of the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Antisemitism Trust, Karen Pollock CBE, in her description of London as “a no-go zone for Jewish people”. This was due to “gratuitous signs of antisemitism”, Percy said, adding that, “Hamas can play no role in the future of the governance of Gaza and that it is Hamas who are responsible for what is happening in Gaza today”.
Former Attorney General Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Ellis KC MP said that an Iranian minister, formally of the IRGC, told Iranian media that his “first mission, as production manager of Iranian-made rockets, [was] to supply those rockets” to Hamas, aiming for them to be “fired into Israel and hit civilians”. He added that the official “openly told Iranian media that he lived in Hamas terror tunnels for some time” and that Tehran’s actions surmount to “bankrolling and supplying Hamas”.
Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee Rt. Hon. Sir Julian Lewis MP asked if the Government has made “any estimate of the number of Hamas fighters who have been killed”, as lawmakers “seem to get very precise estimates of the number of civilians who have been killed” without account taken of the “large number of Hamas fighters” engaged in combatting the IDF across the Gaza Strip. The Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell responded by clarifying that “none of the figures that we are hearing can be relied upon”.
CFI Parliamentary Vice Chair Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP urged the Government to maintain tis “unequivocal support for Israel’s right to defend itself” and to “ensure that we continue to give Israel our strong support”.
CFI Parliamentary Officer Bob Blackman CBE MP made clear that “as a result of Palestinian prisoners being released, there is a concern that Hamas are gaining ground in the West Bank and could end up being the major force”.
Mark Pritchard MP said that “the malevolent force in the region is Iran”, and asked how the Government can work more closely with “partners and allies, to ensure that [the UK] can degrade the capacity and capabilities of Iran” to reduce the “suffering that it has inflicted on the region”.
Iranian plot to attack Israelis in Cyprus foiled, Iran warns of regional “explosion”
Two Iranians have been detained in Cyprus, with the help of Mossad, for planning attacks on Israeli citizens in the country.
The political refugees were in the intelligence-gathering phases and had connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to recent reports.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian announced separately that “at any moment there is a possibility of a big explosion in the region, one not controllable by any party” at the Doha Conference on Monday.
Amirabdollahian evidenced the numerous Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the “targeting” of “US bases in Syria and Iraq” as proof of terror groups “defending the Arab and Muslim people of Gaza”. He called Israel a U.S. regional proxy, and Hamas a “liberation movement”, which is able to continue its campaign against Israel for years. He called Hamas and other Iranian proxies “resistance groups”.
Aid enters via Kerem Shalom crossing amid Hamas misappropriation
The first batch of humanitarian aid trucks have crossed Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing and is now making its way to Gaza, for distribution by the UN. Yesterday, the IDF revealed footage of Hamas operatives diverting humanitarian aid for their own use, preventing Gazan residents from receiving the crucial support. All aid passes Kerem Shalom and Nitzana before being directed to Egypt’s Rafah crossing for entry into the Gaza Strip.
The IDF finds Hamas training site within a mosque in northern Gaza
A Hamas training camp was discovered within a mosque in Gaza’s northern town of Jabaliya, according to reports. Several firearms, grenades and military equipment were discovered there, alongside a combat simulation room used by Hamas, equipped with a machine gun, RPG launcher, computer and projector. Equipment to make explosives was found in another room by the IDF.
Hezbollah fires from beside UN compound, school
Hezbollah launched several rockets toward Israel, metres away from a UN compound and close to a neighbouring school. The disregard or cynical use of these civilian buildings violates violate UNSC Resolution 1701, according to the IDF – and risks endangering the lives of UNIFIL personnel.
Operational update
Northern drone alerts blared across the Upper and Western Galilee this morning due to a “suspicious aerial target” emanating from Lebanon, that was intercepted and destroyed by the IDF.
Overnight, the IDF conducted a raid and drone strike on the West Bank city of Jenin, killing four terrorists.
On Sunday, the IDF announced the complete elimination of the Northern Gaza Brigade and the Gaza Brigade, the Hamas forces in control of the northern Gaza Strip. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that 500 terror operatives have been arrested in the past month, whilst the IDF “have encircled the last strongholds of Hamas in Jabaliya and Shejaiya”. Of those arrested, 350 are Hamas members and 120 are Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.
Hamas battalions in the Jabaliya and Shejaiya neighbourhoods in the northern Gaza Strip are on the verge of collapse, said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday, amid ongoing fighting in and around Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
