THE BBC was branded “disgraceful” as pressure mounted for it to admit the Hamas killers who slaughtered innocent Israelis are terrorists.

The King, plus the Prince and Princess of Wales, issued statements describing the outrage as terrorism while the Government and Britain’s Chief Rabbi spelled out why doing so is vital.

Yet BBC chiefs insisted they would keep referring to the blood-thirsty monsters as “militants” in the name of fairness.

Hamas is officially classed as a terrorist group by a string of western governments.

Buckingham Palace said King Charles was horrified by the assaults, which saw at least 1,200 Israelis killed — and added that he “condemns the barbaric acts of terrorism”.

A spokesman for the Prince and Princess of Wales spoke of “grief, fear and anger” on all sides, but agreed: “The horrors inflicted by Hamas’s terrorist attack upon Israel are appalling.”

And Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis explained: “Words matter.

“The depth of the terror that Hamas has inflicted upon innocent people in recent days is not in doubt.

“The murder of babies where they sleep is not the act of a ‘freedom fighter’.

“The rape of women and the beheading of civilians in their homes are not the acts of ‘militants’. This is not ‘resistance’ or ‘struggle’. It is terrorism. To purposefully avoid that word is to wilfully mislead.”

PM Rishi Sunak said: “This is not a time for equivocation, we should call it out for what it is.”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said of the BBC’s stance: “I actually think it is verging on disgraceful. What Hamas have done is to have gone out and slaughtered innocent people, babies, festival- goers, pensioners.

“They are not freedom fighters, they are not militants, they are pure and simple terrorists.

“It’s remarkable to go to the BBC website and still see them talking about gunmen and militants and not calling them terrorists.”

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And during an appearance on BBC Breakfast, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told interviewers: “I just want to make sure you recognise that in your reporting, these are not militants, they are terrorists.”

He later travelled to Israel to show the UK’s “unwavering solidarity”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the BBC needs to explain why it does not use the word terrorist — adding “that’s obviously what we are witnessing”.

And Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer asked BBC director-general Tim Davie if the broadcaster will reconsider its editorial guidelines.

Danny Cohen, a former BBC director of TV, said its coverage was “as if shooting children in cold blood is some part of conventional military warfare. It is nothing of the sort. It is murder, pure and simple. It is terrorism.”

Supermodel Gigi Hadid, who is half-Palestinian, condemned the “terrorising of innocent people” in a message to her 79million Instagram followers.

But BBC foreign and world affairs correspondent John Simpson said: “Calling someone a terrorist means you’re taking sides.

“The BBC’s job is to place the facts before its audience and let them decide what they think.”

And a BBC spokesman said: “Anyone watching or listening to our coverage will hear the word terrorist used many times. We attribute it to those using it.

“The BBC’s job is to explain ­precisely what is happening so our audiences can make their own judgment.”

Its guidelines state: “The word terrorist can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding.”

Meanwhile in Sheffield, police were hunting two men who used a protest as cover to scale the 200ft-high town hall and replace an Israeli flag with a Palestinian one.

In Israel the first cargo plane carrying “advanced weapons” from the US landed after President Joe Biden’s pledge that: “The United States has Israel’s back.”

And as Israel prepared a full-scale ground assault on Gaza, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed: “What was in Gaza will be no more.”