The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused both Israel and Hamas of breaking the rules of war in Gaza.

In an outspoken intervention, the Most Rev Justin Welby said the aerial bombing was “increasingly” failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The Archbishop suggested that Israel will inevitably continue to come under attack from Palestinians while they remain “condemned to hopelessness”.

He accused both sides of breaching “age-old customs for the conduct of war” – Israel by bombing civilian areas and Hamas by siting rocket launches within them.

Condemning the strategies of both sides as “self-defeating”, he listed the economic blockade alongside terrorist attacks as factors that would only increase the alienation people feel.

He warned that people who feel they have no hope or living in fear “will be violent”.

But he also condemned a rise in anti-Semitism in Britain as a result of the bombing.

He said that while it was acceptable to criticise the policies of the Israeli government, the recent spate of intimidation and abuse suffered by Jewish people was “simply unacceptable”.

It came as new figures showed that reports of anti-Semitic incidents – ranging from verbal abuse to vandalism and assaults – are running at almost three times the level normally seen.

The Archbishop, who visited Israel and the West Bank last year, said it was impossible to see the footage from the conflict “without your heart breaking”.

He urged Christians to “cry to God and beat down the doors of heaven” in their prayers for peace in the Holy land.

“Only a costly and open-hearted seeking of peace between Israeli and Palestinian can protect innocent people, their children and grandchildren, from ever worse violence,” he said.

While he urged the church to support humanitarian efforts in Gaza, he added that a political resolution was essential.

“For all sides to persist with their current strategy, be it threatening security by the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian areas or aerial bombing which increasingly fails to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, is self-defeating,” he said.

“The bombing of civilian areas, and their use to shelter rocket launches, are both breaches of age-old customs for the conduct of war.

“Further political impasse, acts of terror, economic blockades or sanctions and clashes over land and settlements, all increase the alienation of those affected.

“Populations condemned to hopelessness or living under fear will be violent. Such actions create more conflict, more deaths and will in the end lead to an even greater disaster than the one being faced today.”

In a plea for a new process of reconciliation to begin, he added: “It is the responsibility of all leaders to protect the innocent, not only in the conduct of war but in setting the circumstances for a just and sustainable peace.”

But he also voiced dismay at a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain in recent days, which is believed to be fuelled by the Gaza conflict.