Hamas has instructed its soldiers holding hostages to execute them if the Israeli army closes in on them. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the group, said the move follows what he called the “Nusseirat incident” in June, in which Israeli special forces rescued four hostages from two apartments in Gaza.

With its announcement that militants guarding Israeli hostages in the buildings and tunnels of Gaza had “new instructions” to kill them if Israeli troops closed in, Hamas signaled the opening of a chilling new chapter in an already brutal war.

The charity’s chief executive, Halima Begum, welcomed the suspension of some of the licenses but called for the British government to go further in order to reduce the high number of Palestinian civilians being killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.