Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a blistering attack on UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Canada – saying that they had “effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power”.

He also accused Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

Netanyahu was speaking after Thursday’s deadly attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington. Days earlier, the UK, France and Canada had condemned Israel’s expanded offensive in Gaza as “disproportionate” and described the humanitarian situation as “intolerable”.

Downing Street has pointed to Sir Keir’s condemnation of the Washington attack.

In that post, Sir Keir called antisemitism an “evil we must stamp out”.

All three countries denounced the Washington killings, which saw embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, shot dead at an event hosted by the Capital Jewish Museum.

The suspect, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, repeatedly shouted “free Palestine” as he was arrested, police said.

Social media accounts linked to the suspect indicate that he was involved in pro-Palestinian protest movements. Investigators say they are working to verify online writings purportedly by him that accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza and criticise US policy.

According to details in an affidavit, the suspect landed in Washington the night prior to the event and bought a ticket a few hours before it started.

He also referenced a 2024 incident in which a man set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. According to the affidavit, he expressed admiration for the act, calling the man a “martyr” for his protest over the conflict.

In addition to condemning Wednesday’s shooting, the UK, France and Canada – close allies of Israel – have come out in strong support of Israel following the deadly Hamas-led attacks 19 months ago.

Their statement demanding Israel halt its latest offensive was widely viewed as the strongest criticism of Israel’s military action since the war in Gaza began. It threatened concrete actions if Israel did not change course.

On Wednesday Sir Keir added that Israel’s decision to allow only a small amount of aid into Gaza was “utterly inadequate” and the UK suspended talks over a possible trade deal.

In his video, Netanyahu said Hamas wanted to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. He said the Palestinian armed group had welcomed the joint UK, French and Canadian criticism of Israel’s war conduct.

Some of Israel’s closest allies wanted Israel to “stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive”, he said.

“I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice,” he added.

“You’re on the wrong side of humanity, and you’re on the wrong side of history.”

Netanyahu went on to blame a recent claim by UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher that thousands of babies would imminently die in Gaza if Israel did not immediately let in aid for the attack in Washington.

“A few days ago, a top UN official said that 14,000 Palestinian babies would die in 48 hours. You see many international institutions are complicit in spreading this lie,” he said.

“The press repeats it. The mob believed it. And a young couple is then brutally gunned down in Washington.”

When asked at the time for clarification on Fletcher’s statement, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) spokesman Jens Laerke said “there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements… and if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger”.

Also on Thursday, an Israeli minister, Amichai Chikli, accused Sir Keir and other leaders of “emboldening the forces of terror”.

On Friday, UK armed forces minister Luke Pollard condemned the killings in Washington but rejected Netanyahu’s strong criticism of the British prime minister.

He said: “We stand in support of Israel’s right to self-defence as long as they conduct that within international humanitarian law – a position we’ve had since those appalling attacks on 7 October.

“We are also very clear we need to see aid get to the people who are genuinely suffering in Gaza.”

French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine also reiterated his criticism of Israel’s “escalation” in Gaza following Netanyahu’s statement.

He told FranceInfo radio: “Israel has to let the aid in. Access has to be massive and free.”

On Thursday, more than 90 lorries carrying aid supplies were allowed to cross into Gaza but the UN said that level was “nowhere near enough” to meet the needs of Palestinians living there.

The trickle of aid follows an 11-week total blockade, which humanitarian groups said risked widespread famine. Israel resumed air strikes in March which have since killed 3,613 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

In an interview for BBC World Service’s Newshour programme, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the current Israeli administration as a “gang of thugs”.

He was asked about remarks by the Israeli education minister, who had said Olmert should be ashamed of a previous interview with the BBC, where he argued that what Israel was doing in Gaza was “close to a war crime”.

“This is nonsense, they are a group of thugs that are running the state of Israel these days and the head of the gang is Netanyahu – this is a gang of thugs,” Olmert said.

“Of course they are criticising me, they are defaming me, I accept it, and it will not stop me from criticising and opposing these atrocious policies.”

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,762 people, including 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A former leading Ukrainian official has been shot dead outside an American school in the Spanish capital Madrid, reports say.

The 51-year-old man, named by Ukrainian and Spanish sources as Andriy Portnov, had just dropped his children off at the school in the Pozuelo de Alarcón area of the city, reports say.

At least one unidentified attacker fired several shots at the victim before fleeing into a wooded area in a nearby public park, Spanish reports said.

Portnov had been an MP and deputy head in the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president ousted in 2014 after months of protests.

He had previously been an MP in Yulia Tymoshenko’s governing party.

He left Ukraine after the revolution only to return in 2019 after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president.

He then left Ukraine again, and in 2021 was sanctioned by the US Treasury, which said he had been “widely known as a court fixer” who had taken steps to control the judiciary and undermine reform efforts.

The European Union had earlier imposed sanctions on Portnov, but he challenged the move in court and won the case.

It was not clear who was behind the shooting that took place at about 09:15 local time (07:15 GMT) on Wednesday, reportedly as children were still entering the school.

Police drones and a helicopter searched the area for a gunman who, according to witnesses, was a thin man in a blue tracksuit. Spanish reports suggested the gunman may have had at least one accomplice riding on a motorbike.

A similar gun attack took place in 2018, when a Colombian drug trafficker was fatally shot outside a British Council school a few kilometres away.

But the motive behind Wednesday’s attack is not yet known. Emergency services at the scene could only confirm that that Portnov had suffered several bullet wounds in the back and the head.

Portnov’s black Mercedes car was cordoned off and the school wrote to parents to confirm that all the students inside were safe.

Although Ukraine’s intelligence services have been linked to several killings in Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, a fatal attack in Spain in February last year was linked to Russian hitmen.

The victim, a Russian helicopter pilot, was shot dead near Alicante, months after defecting to Ukraine.

Authorities in Kyiv said they had offered to protect Maxim Kuzminov in Ukraine, but he is believed to have moved to Spain’s south-east coast under a false identity.