The event, chaired by Labour MP and LFI Vice-chair Damien Egan, also featured Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer, Palestinian peace activist and regional director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace Nivine Sandouka and Michael Stevens from defence think-tank Rusi. The former diplomat added: “I was in South Sudan for two years where disarmament programmes were being done. “I do not believe that a continued war in Gaza City is going to achieve the destruction of Hamas. Meanwhile, Stevens suggested that any eventual agreement would be imperfect, and could still result in widespread sympathy for Hamas from elements of the Palestinian population. “I worked on ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq; there are still members of those communities that sympathise with ISIS.