DUP human rights spokesman Jim Shannon MP says Hamas should be 'liquidated' and calls for 'aggressive' police crackdown on signs of support for the group

Jim Shannon said following the bloody Hamas incursion into Israel on Saturday the group ought to be “liquidated”, and that everyone should be “aligning ourselves with the innocents that have been killed” rather than engaging in pro-Palestinian protests.

He was speaking to the News Letter on Tuesday after the Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to police chiefs across the country, urging them to “use all available powers to prevent disorder and distress" – indicating that flying the Palestinian national flag could in itself be illegal if “intended to glorify acts of terrorism”.

At about 6.30am local time on Saturday (3.30am GMT), members of Hamas – which has ruled the small Gaza Strip enclave on the Egypt-Israel border for 16 years – entered Israeli territory and began kidnapping and killing random people.

Its members have also been sharing footage online of captive civilians and dead bodies being paraded around in the street.

At least several hundred Israelis were killed, and upwards of 250 of dead were young civilians attending a music festival.

Israel has since hit Gaza with airstrikes, also reportedly killing hundreds, and has cut power, water, and food supplies to Gaza’s two million-plus population.

• – ‘FLYING PALESTINE FLAG MAY BE CRIME’ –

Ms Braverman, in her letter to police chiefs sent on Tuesday, said: “It is not just explicit pro-Hamas symbols and chants that are cause for concern.

“I would encourage police to consider whether chants such as ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world, and whether its use in certain contexts may amount to a racially aggravated Section 5 public order offence.

“Context is crucial. Behaviours that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example the waving of a Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate such as when intended to glorify acts of terrorism.”

A string of pro-Palestinian events are due to be held across Northern Ireland – and the wider British Isles – in the coming days.

At rallies which have already taken place, some protestors have been seen flying the flag of Hamas in London (and in New York too) alongside the regular green, red, black, and white flag of Palestine generally.

A demonstration in Brighton on Saturday saw the local university student union’s women’s officer tell a crowd that Hamas’ operation “was so beautiful and inspiring to see”, while the president of Manchester Friends of Palestine said she was “full of pride” and “joy” at Saturday’s events.

In Northern Ireland, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll tweeted out “victory to the Palestinian resistance” at the weekend, and a number of Sinn Fein Twitter accounts began displaying the Palestinian flag.

Among the upcoming pro-Palestine events promoted by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a parade at 12 noon on Sunday, starting in Writer's Square, Belfast, titled: "Gaza under attack: march for Palestine."

Another flyer for the event says: "March for Palestine / right to exist / right to resist".

There was a demonstration on the Falls Road on Tuesday night organised by INLA-linked group the IRSP, and a separate pro-Palestine event at Free Derry Corner too.

• – ‘THEY DESERVE TO BE LIQUIDATED’ –

DUP MP Mr Shannon told the News Letter: “There’s been a slaughter of the innocents, almost 1,000 Israelis: men, women, and children.

"It’s with great despair that I see any protests that a pro-Palestinian at the moment, and the underlying factor is that they may well be pro-Hamas.

"I’d have thought at this moment in time we should all be sympathising and aligning ourselves with the innocents that have been killed in Israel rather than some political cause [like] some deluded person from either Belfast, Londonderry or down south.”

He welcomed the statement from Suella Braverman, and said that he hopes the PSNI “will be equally aggressive” in prosecuting pro-Hamas expressions.

He went on to describe Israel’s retaliation so far as being “very controlled”, adding of Hamas that “they deserve to be sanctioned, they deserve to be targeted, and they deserve to be liquidated, if that’s the right way of putting it, because of their actions”.

• – SILENT MAJORITY ARE PRO-ISRAEL, SAYS MP –

As to why there is a dearth of similar rallies in favour of Israel, Mr Shannon said: "My office has been contacted by absolutely dozens of emails and phone calls from people who are very pro-Israel.

"I suspect the fact they’re not on the streets doesn’t mean they’re not interested – they certainly are.

"There is a silent majority, they’re certainly there, and they’re contacting me.

"They’re totally shocked by the brutality, the violence, the disregard for children, women, elderly people.

"Any right-thinking and honest person that’s observed this, whether pro-Israeli or not, cannot fail to be shocked.

"They just shot women and children and their husbands and their men.”

• Israel-Hamas conflict: No condolence books, Israeli lighting, or flags for major Northern Irish public buildings

• Belfast-based Palestine campaigner calls Hamas incursion into Israel 'a counter-attack'