One of Britain’s most distinguished journalists has launched a fierce attack on the United Nations inquiry into the Gaza conflict headed by Judge Richard Goldstone.

Sir Harold Evans, editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, said in today’s Guardian that the judge had been “suckered into lending his good name to a half-baked report…

“He… should never have accepted leadership of a commission whose terms of reference were designed to excuse the aggressor, Hamas, and punish the defender, Israel.”

Sir Harold said it seemed to have escaped the judge that “Hamas is committed not just to fight Israeli soldiers; it is a terrorist organisation hellbent on the destruction of the state of Israel.”

Israel, he said, had risked its own forces by “imposing unprecedented restraint” during its Gaza operation.

Criticising Britain’s failure to vote last Friday when the UN’s Human Rights Council endorsed the report, Sir Harold said: “Now we have the sickening spectacle of Britain failing to stand by Israel, the only democracy with an independent judiciary in the entire region”.