Islamic terror may get a “boost” in the UK following the death of Hamas’s leader, a former head of MI6 has said.
Asked if a ceasefire in the Middle East is more likely, Sir John Sawers said the situation will not change “a great deal”.
Sir John told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Hamas may now focus on international terror, after Israeli troops killed Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attacks last year.
He said: “Islamic terrorism may actually get a further boost, if that’s the right word, from events in the Middle East.
“The frustrations that we’ll be seeing because of the lack of movement on the Palestinian question, because of the violence people are witnessing every day.
“And it could be that Hezbollah and Hamas, the new leaderships there, are focused so much on violence that they become not just terrorist organisations designated by western countries and aimed against Israel, but they could revert back to international terrorism, including here in the UK.”
He added that the police and intelligence agencies in this country should be “on their toes” and watch for rising signs of Islamic terror.
Sir Keir Starmer urged a ceasefire in the Middle East in a telephone call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.
The conversation came on the day a drone was launched at Mr Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, on the Israeli coast, in an apparent assassination attempt.
The Prime Minister expressed alarm at the news, a Downing Street spokesperson said, before discussing the wider situation in the Middle East following the death of Sinwar on Wednesday.
The spokesperson said Sir Keir described Sinwar as “a brutal terrorist” who left the world “a better place without him”.
It followed comments made by Sir Keir in Berlin on Friday urging the international community to “make the most of” the “opportunity” presented by Sinwar’s death to secure a ceasefire.
But he also warned the world would not tolerate “any more excuses” for not allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive.
The United States has also expressed concern about the amount of aid entering Gaza, warning in a letter to the Israeli government that it could suspend military funding for Tel Aviv if the humanitarian situation continued to deteriorate.
Both Israel and Hamas have signalled an unwillingness to call a ceasefire in the wake of Sinwar’s death, while Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continues to carry out rocket attacks.
Mr Netanyahu said the attack on his home, which he blamed on Hezbollah, had been a “grave mistake”.
He said: “This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also vowed that Hamas will fight on.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which carried out its own attack on Israel with ballistic missiles earlier this month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel