Andy D’Agorne please note there could be a cease fire in Gaza tomorrow (UK leaders need to do more to bring peace to Gaza, Letters, May 13).

All it needs is for Hamas to release the remaining hostages still alive, to repatriate the bodies of dead captives and to lay down all weapons. The conflict in Gaza would end immediately.

Israel has a right to exist and to root out a terror organisation that has boasted of murdering 1200 of its citizens and stated it will repeat October 7th-style attacks until the State of Israel is extinguished.

It is not Israel, but Hamas and its allies who share extremist ideology.

Mr D’Agorne and other marchers need to be reminded of the Oslo Accords and the subsequent ‘Land for Peace’ deal whereby, in 2005, Israel removed thousands of its own citizens from Gaza and handed over the territory for self-determination on the understanding that conflict with Israel would end.

But the treaty was reneged on from the outset.

Hamas was voted into power. Resources were not ploughed into building up a peaceful economy but on infrastructure to wage war. The manufacture and firing of rockets into Israel became the number one industrial enterprise.

Gaza could have been a huge economic success. Another Singapore. But hatred for Israel was stronger than a desire for peaceful co-existence.

With this knowledge Mr D’Agorne might like to organise another march condemning Hamas and calling for the immediate unconditional release of all surviving hostages.

The reality is there is no hope of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza until the hostages are all back in Israel.

Matthew Laverack Lord Mayors Walk, York