Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has urged protesters on college campuses to protest against Hamas’ behaviour as well as Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war.

Hundreds of people have been arrested on dozens of campuses across the US, where protests and encampments have sprung up in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Ms Pelosi, who is a close ally of US President Joe Biden, told the BBC there was “complete justification” for speaking out about the growing humanitarian crisis there and the impact on civilians of Israel’s bombardment was almost “unforgiveable”.

She has also criticised the actions of the Israeli government while arguing it has a right to self-defence, and is no fan of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, she said she wanted the demonstrators to reflect on their tactics and also condemn Hamas’s actions on 7 October.

“We would like to see some of that enthusiasm recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation that did a barbaric thing in Israel,” she said.

Ms Pelosi had her speech at the Oxford Union in the UK interrupted by protesters on Thursday night. Demonstrators also dumped manure outside her own home in California.

“I’ve said to those [protesters]…do you care about what Hamas has done, do you care about what happened in Israel, would you not, if that happened here would we not have a response?”

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