Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an interview aired Sunday that Israel has “quite clearly” breached international law during the war in Gaza, and also said that, while he supports a two-state solution, his country does not plan to “imminently” recognize a Palestinian state.
In an interview with public broadcaster ABC, Albanese said the news that Israel announced it was allowing and conducting airdrops of aid into Gaza is “a start,” but more must be done to protect Palestinian civilians.
Israel also announced that it will enact daily 10-hour “humanitarian pauses” of fighting in Gaza to facilitate aid entry and distribution, after facing major international pressure, due to mounting reports of starvation in the enclave.
Images of starving Gazans “break the heart,” Albanese said. “A one-year-old boy is not a Hamas fighter. The civilian casualties and deaths in Gaza are completely unacceptable. It’s completely indefensible.”
“My government has been very consistent in calling for a ceasefire,” Albanese said, adding that it has also been consistent in calling on the Hamas terrorists to release the 50 Israeli and foreign captives it is holding.
“We have rules of engagement and they are there for a reason. They are to stop innocent lives being lost, and that is what we have seen” in Gaza, he said.
When shown an image of an emaciated child in Gaza, Albanese said that “for anyone with any sense of humanity, it has to move you, They have to acknowledge that every innocent life matters, whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.”
Asked if he thinks Israel has breached international law in Gaza, Albanese said, “Quite clearly.”
“It is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March,” he added, referring to the total aid blockade that Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip for 11 weeks earlier this year, after the collapse of the ceasefire that began in January.
“It’s a breach of decent humanity and of morality,” he added, while insisting that he is “a supporter of Israel and its right to defend itself.”
But starving children in Gaza are not “challenging Israel’s right to existence.”
“International law says that you can’t hold innocent people responsible,” he said.
In the interview, Albanese also said that, while he supports a two-state solution, Canberra does not plan to “imminently” recognize a Palestinian state, as France has said it would do.
“You need to recognize a Palestinian state as part of moving forward. How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian state operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel?” he stressed, calling Hamas “abhorrent.”
The terror group is not only holding Israelis hostage, “but they are also holding Palestinians hostage as well,” he said, “through their failure to engage in any constructive way.”
“Hamas’s actions on October 7 is where the current atrocities began,” he said, referring to the 2023 Hamas-led terror attack and invasion of southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people saw 251 hostages kidnapped to Gaza.
“Hamas can have no role in a future state,” he said.
Albanese said that Australia would not recognize a Palestinian state “as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward if the circumstances are met,” he said. “Is the time right now? Are we about to imminently do that? No, we are not… But we will engage constructively.”
France announced last week that it would formally recognize a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September, which would make Paris the most powerful European nation to advance such a move, joining Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia, which have all advanced such moves since the current conflict began.
Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.