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Newport City Council has called for a joint pension fund to consider any links to the conflict in Gaza.

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni, the council leader, said the call for a review was about ensuring “ethical investments”.

It is one of five councils belonging to the Greater Gwent Pension Fund, which campaigners allege has links to firms connected to Israel’s actions in Palestine.

Those campaigners have called for the pension fund to sever any such ties, and on Tuesday a small group of demonstrators gathered again outside the Civic Centre, waving Palestinian flags and handing out leaflets to councillors.

Inside the council chamber, Labour councillor Allan Screen presented a motion supporting UK Government calls for an immediate ceasefire, the resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

The motion also called on the Greater Gwent Pension Fund to review its investments, focusing especially on “companies that might be complicit in potential war crimes or human rights violations” – and to work with partner funds on routes to divestment.

Cllr Screen said those ambitions were “sensible” and acknowledged the “suffering on both sides of this awful war”.

He said people signed up to the fund “would, I’m sure, expect their pensions to be invested ethically”.

Several other councillors spoke solemnly about the ongoing events in Gaza, including Cllr Saeed Adan, who said Save the Children had found at least one Palestinian child was being killed every hour in the conflict.

He said there were residents in his Pillgwenlly ward who have relatives in Gaza, and urged councillors to think about how their money may “contribute directly or indirectly to arms that go towards these atrocities”.

However, Cllr Matthew Evans, who leads the Conservative group, questioned whether it was in the local authority’s remit to make declarations on foreign policy.

He said “nobody can deny the appalling suffering of civilians in Gaza” and “innocent Israelis brutally murdered by Hamas”, but claimed the motion was “outside of our remit and out of place in this chamber”.

Cllr Allan Morris said no words in the council chamber would directly help anyone involved in the conflict, but added “what we can do is make sure no money from Newport is going to fund the people dropping these bombs”.

“We want clear consciences that we did what little we could from this distance away,” he added.

Independent councillor Miqdad Al-Nuaimi was unsuccessful in calling for the council to “strengthen” its demands of the pension fund, and include in its motion more details of the UN’s claims of human rights abuses.

And Cllr Will Routley drew boos from the pro-Palestinian protesters in the public gallery when he said he would “take offence” to remarks about Israel “targeting” civilians.

Presiding member Cllr Paul Cockeram frequently asked the gallery to refrain from clapping between speeches from councillors who supported the motion.

But there was also loud applause from the council benches when a tearful Cllr Farzina Hussain closed the debate by telling the chamber the issue “matters deeply” and was “personal for many residents”.