Newspaper headlines: Gazans' 'escape to hell' and PM vows Israel support

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By BBC News
Staff
PA Media

The Prince of Wales and son Prince George attended the rugby World Cup quarter final match between Wales and Argentina

Israel's expected assault on Gaza continues to dominate the papers.

The Sunday Times has spoken to Israeli reservists waiting for orders, among whom, it says, there's no thirst for revenge - they simply answered a call of duty. The Observer says people living in Gaza are already running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies - and now face a terrifying escalation of bloodshed and misery.

"Escape to hell" is the Sunday Mirror's headline. The front page features an image of a man carrying an injured child following a bombing raid on the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the territory, to where civilians in the north have been told to move.

In an editorial, the Sunday Telegraph says politicians across the democratic world made a devastating error when they believed that Hamas could be tamed, even though it had never made a secret of its dedication to the destruction of Israel. The paper says Hamas is a threat that must be destroyed, but that the conflict will also be a disaster for the Gazans, because they live in a prison of Hamas' making.

Retired US general David Petraeus - who led allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - tells the Sunday Times that Israeli troops entering Gaza face the most difficult urban warfare task since World War Two. He says Hamas has had months to prepare and that the Israelis should expect fiendishly difficult ambushes and rooms rigged to blow up.

Writing in the Telegraph, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden says Britain's support for Israel "must not dissipate when the reality of fighting an enemy that hides in tunnels and amongst civilian homes, schools, and hospitals takes shape".

A Sunday Times editorial says it's incumbent on Israel's allies to combine unconditional support with an urging of restraint. The paper says Hamas and its shadowy backers have hoped for precisely what seems to be looming: an explosion of fighting in Gaza that spirals into a broader conflagration, bringing in the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even Iran.

The front page of the Mail on Sunday features a picture of two women at Saturday's pro-Palestine march in London with pictures of paragliders taped to their jackets. Some of the Hamas militants who attacked a music festival in Israel last weekend, killing more than 260 people, entered the site by paraglider. The paper says that, "following a week of abject horror, there could scarcely be a more obscene insult" and asks: "Why didn't the police stop them?"

The Sun on Sunday says a pro-Palestinian group is planning to use sledgehammers to attack buildings in the UK linked to Israel. The paper says it uncovered the plot when reporters penetrated a secret Zoom meeting by the group.

Also writing in the Telegraph, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk argues that some low-level offenders should be ordered to clean neighbourhoods, scrub graffiti off walls, and plant forests, rather than given prison sentences. Mr Chalk also says he'll end early release for violent and sexual offenders and make sure rapists spend the entirety of their sentence in prison.

And finally, most papers feature pictures of Princes William and George looking disappointed following Wales's defeat by Argentina in the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup in France. The Mail says it marks the first time the younger royal has travelled overseas for a sporting fixture and that, by attending a Wales match instead of an England one, he "appears to have made his loyalties clear".