RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: When U.S. troops kill aid workers, it's 'friendly fire'. When Israel does, it's a 'war crime'. The double standards are nauseating

The call came through as I was leaving Twickenham after an England rugby international in March 2003. My old friend Terry Lloyd, the brilliant ITN correspondent, had been killed in Iraq.

He was on the outskirts of Basra, travelling in a 4x4 clearly marked 'TV'. When the fog of war lifted, it was determined that the fatal shot had been fired by a U.S. soldier, who has never been identified. Terry's translator also died and his French cameraman was missing, presumed dead.

A subsequent inquest ruled that Terry had been unlawfully killed by American troops and his lawyer said he had been the victim of a 'very serious war crime'. No one was ever charged.

The shock of his death was as traumatic for his family and friends as for those of the three brave British aid workers killed by Israeli forces in Gaza this week.

But no one at the time demanded that the American-led Coalition — which included 46,000 British military personnel — withdraw immediately from Iraq, allow Saddam Hussein to remain in power and abandon the hunt for what turned out to be non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in Iraq in 2003 after a U.S. soldier shot at the 4x4 vehicle he was travelling in that was clearly marked 'TV'

Employees from the World Central Kitchen were killed after they became caught up in an Israeli air strike amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel 

An estimated 300,000 Iraqi civilians were killed after the 2003 Anglo-American invasion, and although there was widespread opposition to the war I don't recall anyone credibly accusing the British or U.S. governments of committing 'genocide'.

In 2011, a NATO-led bombing campaign in Libya, enthusiastically endorsed by then Prime Minister David Cameron, claimed countless innocent lives. After the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, Call Me Dave even went on a victory parade in Tripoli.

Yet today, the now Lord Cameron is condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza and demanding a 'full, transparent explanation'.

Joe Biden was first a senator, then Vice-President during the American war in Afghanistan, where the civilian death toll is officially put at over 45,000. He, too, says he's 'outraged' over the deaths of the aid workers in Gaza and is putting pressure on Israel to cease hostilities.

Both Cameron and Biden can legitimately be accused of self-serving hypocrisy, aimed at restoring their own, tarnished wartime reputations and, in the case of the U.S. President, seeking electoral advantage by sucking up to Muslim voters in swing states such as Michigan.

When British or U.S. troops accidentally kill innocent civilians, journalists or aid workers it's 'friendly fire' in the heat of battle. When Israel does likewise, it's a deliberate war crime. The double-standards are nauseating.

As is the virtue-signalling, round-robin letter to the Prime Minister from 600 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including Baroness Hale, of Boris The Spider brooch fame during the Brexit wars. Several of them were preening themselves on the airwaves yesterday, demanding that the Government halts arms sales to Israel.

One part of the letter calls for sanctions against 'individuals and entities who have made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians'.

Lord Cameron is condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza and demanding a 'full, transparent explanation'

President Joe Biden also says he's 'outraged' over the deaths of the aid workers in Gaza and is putting pressure on Israel to cease hostilities

What's that supposed to mean — that anyone who supports Israel's right to self-defence is guilty of inciting genocide? Sounds suspiciously to me like the ludicrous 'hate speech' law that came into force in Scotland this week. This is cost-free compassion, designed primarily to make the signatories feel good about themselves.

I've no doubt many of them are sincere, horrified — as we all are, supporters of Israel and Palestinians sympathisers alike — at the carnage unfolding in Gaza. But by concentrating their disdain on Israel, they are acting as Hamas's Useful Idiots.

In some ways they're giving succour to the 'River to the Sea' crowd peddling Jew-hatred on the streets of London and elsewhere every weekend.

By parroting Hamas propaganda, repeating uncorroborated claims about the number of civilians killed, they are doing the terrorists' dirty work for them. One of these distinguished lawyers turned up on Sky News yesterday claiming, without a shred of evidence, that Israeli troops were deliberately targeting children and had lined up doctors and nurses against a wall and shot them.

Also on Sky, a veteran journalist who should know better repeated the Hamas claim that Israel had killed 35,000 'mostly women and children'. No terrorists, then?

The latest calls for a ceasefire centre on the battle at the Al-Shifa hospital, used as a base by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the groups behind the October 7 massacre. Indeed, there's evidence some of the hostages had been dragged there.

The hospital lies in ruins after two weeks of intense fighting, or as Sky would have it: 'Israeli bombardment'. But who the hell does anyone think the Israelis have been fighting — cancer patients, maternity ward orderlies, orthopaedic surgeons?

It's as if Hamas has been written out of the script entirely and Israel has simply decided to slaughter as many sick Palestinians and innocent hospital staff as possible.

If Israel was hell-bent on 'genocide' there wouldn't be a single Palestinian left alive today. Instead, it has taken extraordinary steps to avoid civilian casualties, which are entirely the fault of Hamas.

Building tunnels under schools, mosques and hospitals, from which to launch missiles and cross-border attacks on Israel, demonstrates the terror group's callous disregard for human life.

The quickest way to end the carnage would be for Hamas to surrender and release all the hostages immediately. But there's no evidence of that happening, or any pressure from Arab states to make it happen.

Tentative peace talks always seem to hinge on a disproportionate ten-to-one prisoner swap in Hamas's favour, which Israel can't accept. A ceasefire would simply allow Hamas to re-group and re-arm in preparation for another October 7-style assault.

Hamas has made no secret of the fact it wants to slaughter Jews and wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. Yet, absurdly, it's Israel being accused of genocide.

To those demanding that Israel stands down and lets Hamas continue to occupy its tunnels, I say this: Imagine that the Islamist terrorist who attacked Manchester Arena, killing 22 and injuring 1017 more, hadn't strapped on a suicide vest but instead had planted his bombs before making a swift getaway.

Then after he had escaped, he decamped to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he was holed up in the basement with a few dozen other jihadists and a deadly arsenal. Should the anti-terror squad just shrug and leave them to it, so that some time later they were free to emerge under the cover of darkness and blow up Old Trafford or go on a gun rampage in the Arndale Centre?

Look, I don't want to sound flippant but Israel is fighting for its very existence against a fanatical Islamist death cult.

It can do without posturing, point-scoring Western politicians, lawyers and activists inserting themselves into the narrative. This isn't about them it's about the very survival of a people and a democratic nation.

Hamas are our enemies, too, the kissing cousins of the nutjobs who blew up Manchester Arena, the London Transport network and have committed countless other terrorist atrocities in Europe. Supporting Israel is not, as m'learned friends pretended this week, 'inciting genocide'. Quite the opposite, in fact.

War is hell and there will always be, to use that horrible euphemism, 'collateral damage'.

Terry Lloyd and the courageous aid workers killed in Gaza this week understood that.

They knew the risks but were prepared to put their lives on the line in pursuit of, in Terry's case the truth, and on the part of the aid workers, bringing food and comfort to those in danger.

Their untimely deaths are undoubtedly tragic, but the aid workers would still be alive had it not been for the slaughter of 1,200 innocents on October 7.

Israel is being blamed, but Hamas has their blood on its hands. Sadly, despite the best efforts of brave journalists like Terry Lloyd and others over the years, the truth remains the first casualty of war.