Penny Wong urges Israel to ‘listen’ to friends and warns world won’t ‘accept continuing civilian deaths’
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged Israel to “listen” when its friends ask it to protect innocent lives in Gaza and warned that the world “will not accept continuing civilian deaths”.
Six former Australian prime ministers also weighed in on Monday, expressing solidarity with both the Jewish and Palestinian communities and suggesting that terrorists would win “if our hearts are filled with hatred”.
But Wong’s comments on Monday reflect a strengthening of the Labor government’s calls for Israel to minimise civilian deaths in Gaza. The foreign minister said civilians on both sides had been “murdered” in the “dreadful, tragic conflict”.
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It is understood Wong’s comments were, in part, referring to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.
Seven Palestinians are reported to have been killed by settlers and other violence has also been reported in the past three weeks - actions that both the US president, Joe Biden, and the French foreign ministry have condemned.
Guardian Australia understands Wong has also instructed her department to verify reports that the Israeli Defence Forces have issued evacuation orders at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza.
Sources said the government acknowledged that Hamas was “burrowed into civilian infrastructure” but was worried that “such a move would cause massive casualties and cause uproar throughout the region”.
The moves come after the Coalition accused the government of a fracturing of cabinet solidarity, after Ed Husic said Palestinians were being “collectively punished for Hamas’s barbarism” and Tony Burke said there must not be “selective grief ”.
Wong told ABC Radio: “It is a dreadful, tragic conflict. We are seeing loss of life. We are seeing civilians on both sides [who] have been murdered.”
“We have seen civilians up on both sides in a lot of pain, and obviously, we still have Israeli hostages who have been taken, that Hamas is still holding,” Wong said.
“When Israel’s friends urge Israel to protect civilian life, as we have, it is critical that Israel listens.”
Wong said the UN general assembly vote on Friday – in which 120 countries including France and New Zealand voted for an immediate humanitarian truce – indicated “that the international community will not accept continuing civilian deaths”.
Only 14 countries, including the US and Israel, actively voted against the motion, drafted by Jordan.
Australia was among 45 countries
– including the UK, Germany, India and Canada – that abstained from voting. Australia argued the motion was “incomplete” because it did not directly condemn Hamas for the 7 October attacks.
Wong said she was in alignment with the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who said on Sunday that Israel had a duty to defend itself but also “a responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and ordinary civilians”.
Gaza’s health ministry – which is run by Hamas – has reported the deaths of at least 8,000 Palestinians, including more than 3,300 children and more than 2,000 women, since Israel began its bombardment of the besieged strip after the 7 October attacks.
The Israeli government declared the country was at war after surprise cross-border attacks in which Hamas killed about 1,400 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages to Gaza.
All of Australia’s living former prime ministers except Paul Keating jointly published a statement on Monday condemning “the cruel and murderous attack on Israeli families by Hamas on October 7” and calling for the unconditional release of the hostages.
John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison said Israel’s legitimate objective of defeating Hamas “must be accompanied by support and protection for the civilian population of Gaza”.
The former PMs – including Rudd, the current Australian ambassador to the US – said Hamas “sought to provoke Israel into a reaction that would kill countless innocent civilians in Gaza”.
“If our hearts are filled with hatred, then we will be doing the terrorists’ work,” the joint statement said. “At home in Australia we must treat each other with love and with respect. We must support those who are grieving and distressed.”
The former leaders said the conflict must not be allowed to “turn Australians against each other” and there was “no more tenaciously evil race hatred than antisemitism”.
“We believe we speak for the vast majority of Australians, of all faiths and of none, when we say we stand in solidarity with Jewish Australians at this time,” the former prime ministers said.
“Likewise, we stand too with the Australian Palestinian community whose families are dying and suffering in this terrible conflict.”
The Herald Sun reported on Sunday that the joint letter had been discussed with the Zionist Federation of Australia and all seven living former prime ministers had been “in discussion” about signing it.
That story prompted Keating to issue a statement saying he had already indicated he “would not be agreeing to join other former prime ministers in authorising the statement” and “that remains my position”.
Guardian Australia has been told Rudd was speaking in his capacity as a former prime minister, not as ambassador, but Wong’s office and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had been aware of his intention to sign it.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said on Monday he feared “darker days ahead” and “more bloodshed to come overseas – and with that bloodshed, more division here, more fear, more grief and more anger”.
“A few weeks ago, a Jewish friend of mine told me that he felt afraid to send his children to school here in Australia,” Clare told a faith-based higher education summit in Canberra on Monday.
“The same day, a Muslim friend of mine told me that he was afraid his family in Gaza would not be alive tomorrow.”