Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has told Israel it is ‘losing support’ for Gaza conflict

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Israel is losing support for its conflict in Gaza — and has told the Israeli President so.

The Federal Government has previously said Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas, which has been engaged in a deadly battle against Israel over the October 7, 2023, attacks.

But recent events — including Palestinian deaths at aid sites and Israel’s intervention in how aid is distributed in Gaza — have changed public perception, Mr Albanese suggested.

At least 58,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza figures cited by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, published this week. About 7750 of those deaths have occurred since hostilities stepped up in mid-March. The same UN office reports nearly 1650 Israeli and foreign national fatalities.

The Prime Minister said, alongside public condemnation of reports of Palestinians being killed waiting for aid, Australia had also spoken privately to Israel.

“The other thing that we’ve done is to say in private, what we say publicly as well, which is that Israel, and we say this as a friend, sometimes you gotta be straight and upfront,” Mr Albanese told the ABC in an interview published on Saturday.

“And I certainly have said to, for example, President (Isaac) Herzog, who I’ve known for a long period of time, that Israel is losing support by its own actions, and that some of its actions are completely indefensible.”

In response, Federal Liberal MP Tim Wilson on Saturday said: “Israel has a right to defend itself against what have been terrible attacks that have been committed by a terrorist organisation”.

“There’s always a need to make sure that any response that there is absolute minimisation of civilian casualties and they go to extraordinary lengths to do so,” he said.

“But there’s simply no way that we can face a situation where terrorist organisations are engaging against attacks against liberal democratic regimes against civilians of another nation and for that to be ignored because liberal democratic regimes have a responsibility to stand up and defend themselves against terrorist organisations and terrorist attacks.”

Mr Albanese in the same interview with the ABC, reiterated Australia’s support for a two-State Middle East solution — recognition for “the State of Israel and the State of Palestine”.

“We want Israel to continue to exist within secure borders and to be able to live without the threat of terrorists such as Hamas engaging in the sort of atrocities we saw on October 7,” he said.

“But Palestinians have a legitimate aspiration for a state of their own and to be able to achieve prosperity, and that is something that has been a bipartisan position as well going back to John Howard who said there could be no peace in the Middle East, without dealing with the Palestinian question.”

The comments are the Prime Minister’s strongest on the Middle East since May when he criticised Israeli “excuses and explanations” about the blocking of Gaza aid, which he described as “completely unacceptable”.

They come just days before the return of Parliament for Labor’s second term. The Coalition has pursued Labor and the Prime Minister about its stance on Israel and the latest comments are likely to fuel further pressure.