Hamas must be defeated for good — Tories cannot wobble on Israel now

Finish the job

IT is disheartening to see some senior Tories wobbling over Israel.

It is true its forces did themselves no favours with the accidental killing of Jewish hostages.

But it is wrong to suggest Israel is not making huge efforts to minimise civilian casualties despite Hamas placing them in the firing line.

It’s wrong, too, for Alicia Kearns — chairing the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee — to claim Israel has lost its moral authority and should forget eradicating Hamas and negotiate a truce.

Why would Hamas, sworn to a new Jewish genocide, respect that?

Its cut-throats routinely break ceasefires.

It has repeatedly committed to more October 7-style massacres.

Rishi Sunak’s call for a “sustainable ceasefire” sounds reasonable.

Who doesn’t want that, aside from Hamas, its useful-idiot followers and Iran?

But no peace is sustainable with Hamas still in place fomenting its murderous hate.

Israel must redouble its efforts to avoid harming the innocent.

But the terrorists hiding beneath Gaza or behind its people must be rooted out.

Woe on homes

GIVEN the dire need for a house-building revolution it is depressing that the number of developments getting the nod has fallen.

New homes could drop next year below 200,000, a decade-long low.

In 2019 the Tories pledged 300,000 a year.

Even that would fall far short of what we need.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove aims to force Whitehall to speed up approvals.

But the real problem is the Tories’ surrender to NIMBYs.

Plus all the politicians who cynically pander to them.

The result? Near-zero growth — and a young generation priced out of buying, or even renting, especially in the South.

It is a grim record.

Saviour Debs

MORE than a year after her death, The Sun’s Deborah James is still saving others.

Dame Debs led our No Time 2 Lose campaign to get routine NHS bowel cancer screening rolled out to everyone over 50, with cases rising in under-60s.

It has paid off.

Test kits will go out to 54s and over, giving 830,000 more people a vital chance of detecting the disease early.

Don’t ignore the kit when it arrives. It could keep you alive.

Pump botch

DRIVERS expect fuel prices to fluctuate with wholesale costs. The scandal is when pump profiteers don’t pass on their savings.

So Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho is right to lay down the law to retailers.

But if the Government had launched a Pumpwatch scheme, as we urged long ago, she wouldn’t have to.

It would already be keeping them honest