Annie Lennox, Alexei Sayle, Bianca Jagger, Ken Livingston and George Galloway: Stop Gaza Slaughter

The pair joined a panel of public figures, which also included Ken Livingstone, Bianca Jagger and George Galloway, in a news conference demanding that Israel stop its ’siege’.

An almost tearful Annie Lennox described the sadness she felt when she watched news of the Israeli strikes on Gaza - attacks which Israel says were in response to rocket fire by Hamas and its allies.

"I was thinking as a mother and as a human being - how was this going to be a solution to peace?" she said.

"How are we going to find the answer in this way?"

She went on: "There has to be a place, ultimately, where people come to the table."The reason I’m here today is to use my freedom of speech, my right as an individual in a free world, to encourage people to get together and protest against this means of ’conflict resolution’ which will never work."

Lennox’s emotional plea was followed by comments from Liverpudlian writer and comedian Alexei Sayle, who has a Lithuanian Jewish background.

He said: "It is important that Jewish people who have a public profile speak out to say that this has not been done in our name.

"I think that Israel has an idea of itself as being noble.

"When you attack somebody but you have this idea of yourself that you’re the good guy - you think ’how can this be?’

"What you do is blame the people you have killed - and you hear all the time from Israeli spokespeople that they are angry with the people that they have murdered, for making them murder them.

"It is the psychologist of the murderer, the rapist, the bully. And that’s what Israel is in this situation."

Bianca Jagger then added her support to calls for an end to the violence and appealed to the US President Elect Barack Obama to speak up against the bombardment of the Gaza strip.

Also present at the news conference were the writer Tariq Ali, Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather and Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.

The meeting was called ahead of a demonstration on Saturday that is expected to see thousands of people rally along the Embankment in London before marching to Trafalgar Square to demand an immediate end to the Israeli attacks.

It comes as Hamas called for a ’day of wrath’ after an Israeli air strike killed hardline commander Nizar Rayan and several of his wives and children.

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