‘People are starving’: Albanese attacks Israel over ‘outrageous’ Gaza food restrictions

Anthony Albanese is coming under growing internal and international pressure to sanction Israel and recognise Palestinian statehood before a major United Nations conference next month, as the prime minister rounded on the Netanyahu government for limiting the delivery of food and other supplies going into Gaza.

Israel last week ended its 11-week blockade of aid entering the ravaged strip but the United Nations and leading international charities argue the trickle of supplies is not nearly enough to meet the demands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Palestinians struggle to receive cooked food distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis.Credit: AP

Australia last week joined 23 other nations to condemn Israel for politicising the delivery of humanitarian aid, but did not sign onto a stronger statement by the United Kingdom, France and Canada warning Israel of sanctions if it did not stop settlement building in the West Bank.

The three nations also said they were “committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end”, as they noted the UN is preparing to hold a high-level conference on a two-state solution.

France and Saudi Arabia will co-host the conference, which is scheduled for June 17-20 in New York. French President Emmanuel Macron has been lobbying fellow world leaders to join a unified effort to recognise a Palestinian state, even if it is opposed by Israel.

Australia voted in favour of holding the conference last year in a seven-page resolution calling for the international community to “urgently chart an irreversible pathway towards the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-state solution”.

“Israel’s actions are completely unacceptable,” Albanese told reporters on Monday, using some of his most forceful language on the issue in recent times.

“It is outrageous that there be a blockade of food and supplies to people who are in need in Gaza. We have made that very clear by signing up to international statements.”

Albanese said he had expressed his criticisms directly to Israeli President Isaac Herzog when they met in Rome on the sidelines of Pope Leo’s inauguration mass.

“I made it very clear that Australia finds these actions completely unacceptable and we find Israel’s excuses and explanations completely untenable and without credibility,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Israeli government on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“People are starving.”

He said Australia did not sign up to the France, Canada and UK stronger comments because it was a G7 statement – even though it did not mention the G7 by name or include the other four G7 nations.

He refused to be drawn on whether his government would recognise Palestinian statehood during this term of government.

Peter Moss, a spokesman for Labor Friends of Palestine, said Labor branches around the country were fired up by the issue as he called for Albanese to match his criticism of Israel with action.

“At a minimum, Australia should immediately support the statement from the United Kingdom, France and Canad and prepare sanctions targeted at Israeli officials responsible for using starvation as a weapon of war,” Moss said.

“Australia should also deliver on official Labor policy, supported by the majority of the Australian people, and recognise the state of Palestine at the upcoming UN conference in June.”

Labor’s national platform calls on the Australian government to “recognise Palestine as a state” and calls the issue an “important priority”.

Former Labor cabinet minister Ed Husic criticised the government for not joining the UK, France and Canada in threatening sanctions against Israel.

“Australia could have proudly joined them. We didn’t,” Husic wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian on Saturday.

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network President Nasser Mashni said: “Australia has imposed sanctions on Russia, Iran, Myanmar, in compliance with its obligations to apply pressure to states committing egregious acts of violence and oppression. It’s beyond time for sanctions on Israel.”

Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said: “The calls to recognise a Palestinian state and criticisms of Israel distract from what should be the focus of all governments right now, which is ensuring the surrender of Hamas...Such calls play right into Hamas’s strategy of isolating Israel from its western allies no matter the cost in civilian blood.”

Save the Children Australia spokesman Aram Hosie said: “Australia must make clear that it simply will not tolerate Israel’s continued bombing and starvation of Gaza’s children without the prospect of serious consequences.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was among the foreign ministers of 23 nations who wrote in a joint statement that they could not support the limited aid delivery the Israeli government had proposed.

“Humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” the foreign ministers wrote.

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