Simon Birmingham to make solidarity trip to Israel

Simon Birmingham’s Israel visit will pile pressure on the government to send its own high-level envoy.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham will travel to Israel in a show of support for the Jewish state, ­piling pressure on the Albanese ­government to send its own high-level envoy.

Senator Birmingham said he was visiting Israel to demonstrate Australia’s solidarity with the Jewish people, and called out Labor’s failure to send a minister to the country since the October 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1200 people.

“With dozens of presidents, prime ministers and ministers from like-minded countries having visited Israel since the terrorist attacks of October 7, it is disgraceful that not one Albanese government minister has done so,” the senator said.

“As shadow foreign minister, I am pleased to have the opportunity to visit Israel, demonstrating our enduring support for Israel’s right to exist and its inherent right to self-defence, including the removal of Hamas as a terrorist threat.”

Senator Birmingham is expected to arrive in the country next week, but exact details are being withheld for security reasons. He will become only the second Australian political figure to visit Israel since the start of the war, after Scott Morrison travelled there with former British prime minister Boris Johnson.

Senator Birmingham will meet with families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, and others who lost loved ones during the surprise attack from Gaza.

He also has meetings scheduled with senior Israeli officials, representatives of the Palestinian Authority, and civil society groups.

Senator Birmingham said with anti-Semitism on the rise in Australia and across the world, it was more important than ever for Australian leaders to stand in solidarity with the Jewish people.

His comments followed new travel warnings for Israelis visiting Australia and other countries amid violent anti-Israel protests.

Division within Labor over the war has disappointed members of Australia’s Jewish community, and delayed a phone call between Anthony Albanese and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 7 attack. But it’s understood Israel would welcome a visit by a representative of the Albanese government, and that back-channel invitations have been made. ­Senator Birmingham’s upcoming trip comes amid rising pressure on Israel over civilian casualties in Gaza, with the World Health Organisation warning the ­humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave is deteriorating by the hour.

In the latest fighting, Israeli forces pressed their attack on the southern Gaza Strip, in house-to-house fighting in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Younis.

Gazans mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in air strikes on Khan Yunis, Gaza. Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah / Getty Images

The head of Israel’s southern command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, said it was “the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation”.

Israel said the estimated number of Hamas fighters killed in the fighting so far stood at several thousand, while health authorities in Gaza put the civilian death toll at more than 15,500. Neither figure could be verified.

Israel’s closest ally, the US, continues to back Israel’s retaliatory war on Hamas after the collapse of a week long truce. But there is growing alarm in Washington over the scale of civilian casualties, and violence in the ­occupied West Bank by Jewish settlers.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel: “If you drive them into the arms of the enemy you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Monday that Mr Austin’s statement was an important one, given his experience in urban warfare in Iraq.

“Israel must respect international humanitarian law and it must conduct its military operations lawfully,” she said. “And we are very concerned about the scale of civilian death that we are all seeing, including children.”