Release hostages to help Gazans

Outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, such as that expressed by Anthony Albanese on Monday, is all very well. Israel can and should do more to alleviate the suffering. But such criticism overlooks the root cause of the problem. “People are starving,” the Prime Minister said. “The idea that a democratic state withholds supply (of food and other aid) is an outrage.” The trouble, however, is that it reveals yet again the hypocrisy of Western leaders – not just Mr Albanese – who invariably are quick to lambaste and demonise Israel but fail to recognise that the nub of all that is happening in Gaza is Hamas and its pig-headed, inhumane intransigence in refusing to lay down its arms and release the Israeli hostages it has held since October 7, 2023.

When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a joint demarche last week, it was Israel – not Hamas and its Iranian puppetmaster, the perpetrators of the slaughter of 1200 Jews – that was targeted with threatened sanctions if it did not halt its military operations in Gaza and lift aid restrictions. At least on Monday Mr Albanese called for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid to be allowed in, the release of the hostages and an “end to hostilities”. But he did not come close enough to recognising that until Hamas hands over the hostages there is unlikely to be an end to the humanitarian catastrophe or the war and its terrible toll.

Global outrage over the Israeli airstrike last Friday that killed nine of the 10 children of two married doctors working at Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex is well founded. It inevitably provoked more worldwide condemnation of Israel. But where is the condemnation of the Hamas-style “Free Palestine” assassination last Wednesday in the heart of Washington DC of two soon-to-be engaged Jews working at the Israeli embassy, Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30? “I did it for Palestine,” alleged assassin Elias Rodriguez, 31, boasted.

Israel deploying most of its army to Gaza with the aim of taking full control of 75 per cent of the Strip across the next two months is provoking further anger. It plans to push Palestinian civilians into just a quarter of the territory as part of a new effort to rid Gaza of Hamas. Short of caving in to the terrorists and their cynical abuse of the hostages as a strategic playing card, Israel does not have an alternative but to do what it believes necessary to annihilate Hamas. That is the basic prerequisite to ending Gaza’s humanitarian and security challenges. The sooner world leaders accept that reality, the better the hopes for eventual peace and an end to the Gazans’ suffering. Blaming Israel is not the answer.