Key Points
- Australia, Canada and New Zealand have backed moves towards a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
- In a joint statement they also reiterated support for a two-state solution.
- Hamas must also give up its weapons, they said.
Australia supports the creation of a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip but Hamas must give up its weapons, the prime minister has said in a joint statement with his counterparts from New Zealand and Canada.
“We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza,” the statement released on Wednesday said, as the Israeli bombardment of Hamas militants in the enclave continues.
“The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” the leaders said.
Health authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza say the death toll from Israel’s offensive has passed 18,000.
The joint statement condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and the “heinous acts of violence perpetrated in those attacks, including sexual violence”, after militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages.
Anthony Albanese, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said any ceasefire “cannot be one-sided”.
“Hamas must release all hostages, stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields and lay down its arms,” they said.
The three leaders condemned “Hamas’ unacceptable treatment of hostages” and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the captives.
The three governments recognised Israel’s right to defend itself.
“In defending itself, Israel must respect international humanitarian law,” they added.
There was also “no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza”, the leaders said while opposing “the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the re-occupation of Gaza, any reduction in territory and any use of siege or blockade” and backed a two-state solution.
“We reaffirm that settlements are illegal under international law. Settlements and settler violence are serious obstacles to a negotiated two-state solution.”
Palestinian children wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to the hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Source: AAP / Adel Hana/AP
l and other countries in the Middle East in January.
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly was due to vote to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the conflict on Wednesday after the United States vetoed such a move in the Security Council.
The significant escalation is the latest boiling point in a long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
Joe Biden says Israel losing support
US President Joe Biden said Israel is losing support over its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu should change his hardline government, exposing a new rift in relations with the Israeli prime minister.
Biden’s remarks, made to donors to his 2024 re-election campaign, were his most critical to date of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. They are a stark contrast to his literal and political embrace of the Israeli leader days after Hamas militants’ 7 October attack on southern Israel.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world … But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” Biden said.
Biden’s remarks opened a new window into his blunt private conversations with Netanyahu, with whom he has had deep disagreements for decades.
Biden alluded to a private conversation in which the Israeli leader said: “‘You carpet bombed Germany, you dropped the atom bomb, a lot of civilians died.'”
Biden said he responded: “Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War II to see to it that it didn’t happen again…don’t make the same mistakes we made in 9/11. There’s no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan.”
Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel had received “full backing” from the US for its ground incursion into Gaza and that Washington had blocked “international pressure to stop the war”.
But he added: “There is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well.”
Biden says Israel needs new government
Biden specifically mentioned Israel’s far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is Israel’s national security minister, and said “this is the most conservative government in Israel’s history.”
“He (Netanyahu) has to change this government. This government in Israel is making it very difficult,” Biden said.
He also said that ultimately Israel “can’t say no” to a Palestinian state, which Israeli hardliners oppose.
Biden said: “We have an opportunity to begin to unite the region … and they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that Bibi (Netanyahu) understands that he’s got to make some moves to strengthen… You cannot say no Palestinian state… That’s going to be the hard part.”
Netanyahu also said in Tuesday’s statement he would “not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” the 1990s peace accords that created the Palestinian Authority as part of negotiations for the creation of a potential Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Washington has said it envisions an eventual return by the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, which Hamas seized from the West Bank-based body in 2007.
