Albanese, fellow leaders warn Israel against ‘catastrophic’ Rafah invasion

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined with his counterparts from Canada and New Zealand to implore Israel not to launch a ground invasion of the besieged Gazan city of Rafah and to call for an immediate ceasefire.

In a sign of growing international impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the three leaders said an Israeli military operation in Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, would be “catastrophic”.

“There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go,” New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (left), Anthony Albanese and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say.Credit: Getty, AP, Alex Ellinghausen

“We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path,” Albanese, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in a statement.

“There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”

More than half of Gaza’s population has fled to Rafah to escape fighting further north in the territory since the start of the four-month conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has said that disarming the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah is crucial to its aim of defeating the listed terrorist group, which launched a shock attack on October 7 that killed an estimated 1200 people in Israel.

But Albanese, Trudeau and Luxon said that Israel must listen to its friends and the international community.

“The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law,” their statement said.

“Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.”

The statement represents a significant strengthening of language from a December joint statement by the leaders in which they said they supported “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire” and backed Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law.

It came as Albanese announced, ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, that the government would provide $50 million in financial support to Ukraine for military equipment.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong earlier in the day warned Israel against an incursion into Rafah, telling Senate estimates hearings, “Our message to Israel is: listen to the world, do not go down this path.”

She continued, “This would bring further devastation to more than a million civilians seeking shelter. Large-scale military operations in densely populated areas risk extensive civilian casualties. Australia believes this would be unjustifiable.”

More than 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died since the beginning of the war, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Including the October 7 fatalities, more than 1400 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli tallies.

US President Joe Biden this week said that a “major military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than 1 million people sheltering there”.

“Many people there have been displaced multiple times fleeing the violence to the north and now they are packed into Rafah, exposed and vulnerable,” he said. “They need to be protected.”

Responding to Wong’s comments, Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said, “It is not Israel that needs to listen to the world.”

He said, “when the last standing Hamas battalions, the Hamas leadership and the hostages are being kept in Rafah, it is clear the Israeli forces must go there”.

“The international pressure needs to be on Hamas to surrender and spare the people they claim to serve and represent from further hardship,” he said.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network welcomed the leaders’ statement, saying it “acknowledges and echoes the government’s expression of grave concern for Palestinians trapped in Rafah as Israel prepares to double down on its genocidal campaign in Gaza”.

The group urged the federal government to go further by ending all military intelligence and defence export co-operation with Israel and restoring funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Palestinian territories, which was paused in January while claims some employees were involved in the October 7 attacks are investigated.

Marc Innes-Brown, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assistant secretary with responsibility for the Middle East, on Thursday said he was familiar with complaints about the agency but that they were often exaggerated by pro-Israel groups.

“The agenda is, and this is well known ... is for UNRWA to be disbanded,” he said.

Describing the agency as the “linchpin” for humanitarian assistance in the Palestinian territories, Wong indicated the government was looking to restore funding once it had addressed the allegations.

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