Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday night warned the Middle East conflict risks lighting the “touchpapers in our own communities” and urged parties to “act with restraint and return to political, not military, solutions”.

The Prime Minister, writing in The Sunday Times, called on all sides to “do everything in their power to step back from the brink” ahead of the Oct 7 anniversary.

He added that “a better future will not be won by traumatising, orphaning, and displacing another generation”, in an apparent warning to Israel.

An Israeli military official indicated a “significant” response would be staged in response to Iran’s attack last Tuesday, in which it fired almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in revenge for the killing of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah late last month.