The Prime Minister met Isaac Herzog in Number 10 on Wednesday afternoon, where they were pictured shaking hands.

Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was also pictured entering Downing Street for the discussion, which was described by Herzog as “tough” and “frank”.

(Image: PA) While the Prime Minister is yet to make an official statement on the meeting, Herzog told an event at the Chatham House think tank: “We had a very frank and open discussion, me and Prime Minister Starmer at 10 Downing (Street).

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“It was a meeting between allies, but it was a tough meeting.”

(Image: PA) Herzog added: “Things were said that were tough and strong and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet they can argue. We are both democracies, we both understand the threat from the jihadists.

“The Prime Minister reiterated, and of course I couldn’t agree more, that Hamas is a terror organisation that must be removed.”

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Herzog said that he and Starmer had discussed “at length” recognition of a Palestinian state, saying: “We believe that a unilateral resolution regarding a Palestinian state will be adverse and negatively affect any future process, because it will be dangerous.

“It won’t help one Palestinian, one hostage, and can be adversely interpreted by Hamas.”

The Israeli president also said he had invited Starmer on a “fact-finding mission” to Israel to “study the situation in Gaza“.

The Scottish Greens said Wednesday’s meeting should “haunt” Starmer for the rest of his tenure as Prime Minister.

Patrick HarviePatrick Harvie MSP, the party’s external affairs spokesperson, said the Labour Government should be cutting political and military ties with Israel, instead of “treating them like old friends”.

Harvie told The National: “The sight of Keir Starmer welcoming the President of a genocidal apartheid regime is one that should haunt him for the rest of his tenure.

“This is a time when every government and every leader who cares about human rights and the genocide in Gaza should be cutting their political and military ties to Israel, not treating them like old friends.”

He continued: “The world has seen how the UK has responded to the collective punishment of two million people and the grotesque failure of any kind of moral leadership from Downing Street.

“With the humanitarian emergency in Gaza getting worse and worse, the case for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel has never been stronger.”