Longtime British correspondent Eric Silver reported from Jerusalem that "Israeli political and religious leaders condemned the destruction of 26 abandoned settlement synagogues by Palestinian mobs after the army finished evacuating the Gaza Strip" (Jewish Chronicle). No matter how distasteful, some Israeli government officials thought that the synagogues should have been demolished before the departure from Gaza to prevent just such an occurrence.

In his column in The Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens expressed great disappointment that "there was no great global shock or outrage" at this destruction. Personally he found "the sight of burning synagogues both terrifying and disgusting." He also reminded his readers that "history tells us what happens when the synagogues burn." (Sources: Jewish Chronicle, The Mail on Sunday [both London].)