Media Report 2025.05.31
FPM Media Report Saturday May 31 2025
Palestinian children sent back to war-ravaged Gaza after medical treatment in Jordan
By Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran and ABC staff in Gaza
In short:
Palestinian children evacuated to Jordan for desperately needed medical treatment have been sent back to Gaza, fearful for their lives.
Some families claim their children are sent home before their treatment is completed — a claim Jordanian authorities deny.
The Jordanian government says all patients are told they will need to return to Gaza once they have completed their treatment.
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Family reunions are normally times of happiness and joy. For Palestinian mother Enas Abu Daqqa, any relief in seeing her children after more than two months away has been tempered with deep anxiety.
Earlier this year she was evacuated from Gaza to Jordan along with her baby daughter Niveen, who desperately needed open-heart surgery.
“The treatment was excellent, she underwent surgery and the preparation was thorough,” Enas told the ABC.
“The doctors in Jordan, at a specialised hospital, were highly dedicated.”
Enas and Niveen left Gaza in March, while a ceasefire was in force. They have returned to an intense bombardment, with the family now living in a tent in “suffocating heat”.
“We were deeply afraid of returning, coming back to war and fear,” Enas said.
“We would have preferred not to come back at this time — a ceasefire would have made things easier.”
A mother wearing a hijab sits on a mat inside a tent with a baby and three children.
Enas’s family now live in a tent in Gaza, in the “suffocating” heat. (ABC News)
Enas also said her daughter, who was born with a hole in her heart, had been sent back to Gaza before her treatment was completed — a claim Jordanian authorities have denied.
“I was not able to obtain her medical records, which are essential for continuing her care,” she said.
“Of course I missed my children, my family, my parents and the ones I love in Gaza — yet … I fear for my daughter.
“I am afraid that her health deteriorates — she is not gaining weight, I fear she’ll experience heart failure.”
Mother recounts ‘terrifying’ journey back to Gaza
Niveen was among the first of a planned 2,000 Gazan children to be evacuated from the enclave and taken to Jordan for medical treatment.
Now those children have started being sent back to the war-ravaged strip, despite protests from their families. Some parents, such as Enas, also claim their children have been sent back to Gaza before their medical treatment was finished.
The ABC first met Enas and Niveen when they were brought into Jordan in early March.
The mercy mission to get sick kids out of Gaza
Photo shows A boy with an amputated arm wrapped up sits in an orange chair A boy with an amputated arm wrapped up sits in an orange chair
In March about 2,000 children were evacuated from Gaza, seeking medical treatment in Jordan. Here are some of their stories.
It had taken the ambulances a full day’s travel cross-country from the European Hospital in southern Gaza before arriving at the King Hussein border crossing in the West Bank.
But relief was etched across the young mother’s face, despite the arduous journey. Her daughter, then just five months old, was finally getting help.
The return trip in mid-May was very different.
“The situation was terrifying as we made our way back,” she said.
“We had to stop constantly along the road, I had no diapers, no milk for her, and not even water to keep her hydrated.”
A seven-month-old baby looks sleep as she lays on her side, the comforting hand of her mother on her back.
Enas says she didn’t want seven-month-old baby Niveen to return home to a war zone. (ABC News)
Along the way, Enas received distressing news. Her husband and their other children were injured in an attack while waiting for their return to the European Hospital.
Then they arrived at the Gaza border and were searched by Israelis, who confiscated personal belongings before letting them cross.
The Jordanian government said it was “unfortunately true” that Gazans had been searched.
Boy ‘stuck’ with ill-fitting prosthetic leg
A young boy sits on a mattress on a cement floor, holding up his prosthetic leg.
Abdul lost a leg in an Israeli air strike and needed a prosthesis fitted by doctors in Jordan. (ABC News)
Enas and Niveen were not the only ones sent back into a war zone.
Mohammed Qatoush and his nine-year-old son, Abdul, were in the same convoy that returned to Gaza from Jordan in mid-May.
Abdul lost a leg in an Israeli air strike and needed a prosthesis fitted by doctors in Jordan.
But Mohammed said Abdul’s new prosthetic leg was too big for him.
“When we fit a prosthetic leg, it’s meant to avoid causing any damage to his remaining limb,” Mohammed said.
“However, this prosthetic is 2 centimetres longer than it should be.
“We informed the doctors about the issue, but they gave the excuse that he would grow taller.”
A man sits next to his son, who is holding a prosthetic leg, on a mattress on the ground.
Mohammed Qatoush and his nine-year-old son, Abdul, were evacuated from Gaza to Jordan for medical treatment in early March 2025 and have since returned. (ABC News)
Mohammed said the doctors insisted the larger prosthetic would last four to five years without needing to be replaced.
“This means he’s essentially stuck with it for four years, which could lead to additional problems with his hips,” he said.
“They address one issue, only to create another that will need treatment.”
Worried about his son’s wellbeing, Mohammed sought other medical opinions in Jordan.
“I met with Belgian doctors who examined the prosthetic — they informed me that using this particular prosthetic could cause long-term damage to his joint,” he said.
“We were deceived — instead of allowing us to complete our treatment, they brought us back to Gaza where the European Hospital was bombed.
“I am truly grateful to the people of Jordan for their kindness, but the government did not provide any support for our expenses.”
Jeeps and guns surround returning children
Mohammed and Abdul’s journey back from Jordan was also scarring.
Israeli security contractors searched them when they were re-entering Gaza, Mohammed said.
“We were freaking out,” he said.
“My son was under the seat in the bus.
“They stopped the Jordanian bus that was taking us — 10 Jeeps surrounded us, they were pointing their guns at us, the children were terrorised.”
In March, the ABC met some of the first children who were evacuated out of war-ravaged Gaza.
Israel’s defense ministry confirmed searches were carried out.
“During the security check of Gaza residents returning from medical treatment in Jordan, some individuals were found carrying undeclared cash amounts exceeding normal limits,” it said in a statement.
“The funds, suspected of being intended for terrorist use within Gaza, are being held while the circumstances are investigated.”
Jordan says treated children are in ‘good health’
Jordanian officials said it was made clear to Palestinians being evacuated that they would have to return after completing their medical treatment “to allow Jordan to bring more patients”.
Seventeen children and their escorts were returned in mid-May, and another 10 Palestinian children needing cancer treatment have been evacuated from Gaza since.
“Jordan’s policy is to support Palestinians’ steadfastness on their homeland, and not to contribute in any way to their displacement,” Minister of Government Communication and Government spokesperson Mohammad Momani said in a statement.
“These patients were brought to Jordan and returned to Gaza under the same circumstances.”
A woman in black clothing and navy hijab looks down at her baby daughter and places a soothing hand on her chest.
Enas says she and Niveen were sent back to Gaza before the treatment was completed. Jordan denies this claim. (ABC News)
Mr Momani said it was “completely false” to suggest the children were returned to Gaza without finishing their medical treatment, and were not appropriately supported in Jordan.
“They all received the best medical care at Jordan’s top hospitals, and their families were provided with the best possible accommodations,” he said.
“Some of these patients underwent delicate surgeries, and they are all in good health now.”
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Letters SMH
Love and condemnation
Nicola Redhouse has written a compelling article reflecting on her Judaism and the Gaza conflict (“We Jews must be willing to be ashamed of Israel”, May 30). She writes “one measure of our capacity to love Israel truly is our willingness to be ashamed of it when it acts shamefully”. Love Israel, cherish Judaism, but condemn Israel’s treatment of innocent Palestinians. Brian Barrett, Padstow
I am a bitzer Jew, with a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. In fact, I’m not really considered a proper Jew at all, but I have grown up with a Jewish identity rather than a religious upbringing, surrounded by Jewish friends. I grew up with the best Jewish traditions of ethical responsibility, a commitment to public service, and scrupulous integrity. And so I found myself intensely moved by Nicola Redhouse’s words, that we must “never mistake power for righteousness, or the survival of the state for the flourishing of the soul”. Israel’s right to exist does not equate to doing as it pleases beyond international law and beyond the ethical principles that nourish and sustain us.
Josie McSkimming, Coogee
I applaud Redhouse for her poignant essay and the bravery she shows in “possibly being called a traitor” for feeling shame at Israel’s continuing destruction of Gaza. As a dual citizen of the USA and Australia I, too, feel shame, but mine is for the atrocities committed by the current American administration against immigrants, refugees, educational institutions and media organisations that dare to uphold the values of diversity and equity. But shame is not enough if we stay silent, and if it makes me a traitor to some of my compatriots, so be it. I believe both the Israeli and US governments have damaged their democracies, and these inhumane acts put a stain on their countries that will be hard to erase. Let us not, as Australians, be complicit or complacent when it comes to democracy; let us instead speak out to any challenges to the human rights and dignity of others. Let us be strong and loud and humane. Jen Hacker, Ettalong Beach
Israeli protesters demand an end to the war.
Israeli protesters demand an end to the war.Credit: AP
So much of what Nicola Redhouse says speaks to all of us as we watch the suffering in Gaza. Thank you, Nicola, for speaking out so bravely. Zeny Giles, New Lambton
Nicola Redhouse and the many Jewish people who think and act like her are a beacon of hope. I thank her for pointing out the array of errors in “the conflation of the Jewish people’s identity with the state of Israel”. Why should the Jewish people have that lie flung at them on top of all the other lies they have endured for centuries? When I next pray a psalm, Ms Redhouse, I will think gratefully of you and yours. Sister Susan Connelly, Croydon
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Israel has lost all moral authority. It will never bomb Hamas out of existence. Instead, its actions will guarantee the next generation will be more radical. Hiding behind the Holocaust to deflect any criticism as antisemitic is itself a crime against Jewish people. David Marks, Kincumber
Take responsibility, Israel
Rabbi Daniel Rabin states, “Israel didn’t want or start this war. It was dragged into it, broken-hearted, after its worst day since the Holocaust. And yet it is being judged as though it is the aggressor.” (“I get why many people think Israel is a villain. As a rabbi, that’s not how I see it”, May 30.) Palestinians have been stuck in that tiny enclave since Israel was formed in 1948 and they were driven from their homes. The rabbi says: “Israel is the story of an indigenous people returning to their homeland.” But Palestinian Arabs had already lived in that “homeland” for centuries. Palestinians’ land and that in the West Bank has been progressively taken or destroyed by Israel. Palestinians have no autonomy, no dignity, no freedom. Many in Netanyahu’s government actually call for a removal of the entire population of Gaza. Yes, Israel is the aggressor, and it must accept that fact and accept responsibility for the intense and desperate resentment that has understandably built up for more than 70 years in the Palestinian people. Judy Hungerford, Kew (Vic)
Yes, Rabbi Rabin, it’s a good story. I remember being thrilled by Leon Uris’ novel Exodus and the subsequent movie starring Paul Newman. I don’t feel that way any more. When the Jewish people left Palestine, largely as the result of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, there remained other indigenous groups, to whom the Jews are genetically related. They are still there. Many were forced from their immediate homes and lands to create space for you. Things have never been happy since. You ask what you are supposed to do. Do the grand thing – sue for peace and do whatever it takes to make it happen. Carolyn Little, Mortdale
Rabbi, I was wondering how many more innocent women and children’s deaths it might take before Israel decides this war on Hamas is costing too many lives? There won’t be any children left in Gaza soon to “grow up with dignity and safety”. Sally Shepard, Nelson Bay
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UN warns of Gaza famine risk, as Israel vows to build ‘Jewish state’ in West Bank
The UN warned on Friday that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine, as Israel vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has faced mounting international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the UN says only a trickle of aid has been allowed in after a more than two-month blockade.
Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived truce.
Israel has meanwhile doubled down on its settlement expansion in the West Bank, while defying calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a two-state solution.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, on Friday called Gaza “the hungriest place on earth”.
“It’s the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred percent of the population at risk of famine,” he said.
Recent AFPTV footage has shown chaotic scenes as large crowds of Palestinians desperate for food rushed to a limited number of aid distribution centres to pick up supplies.
Israel recently intensified its Gaza offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, drawing sharp international criticism, including from allies such as Britain and Germany.
– ‘Crusade’ against Israel –
This week Israel announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the West Bank.
London called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, and UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution “in the wrong direction”.
On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the Palestinian territory which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land,” Katz said in a video published by his office.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank — considered illegal under international law — are seen as a major obstacle to a lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Katz framed the move as a direct rebuke to Macron and others pushing for recognition of a Palestinian state.
Macron has recently stepped up his statements in support of the Palestinians, asserting on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity”.
Macron confirmed he would personally attend a conference France is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia at the UN in June aimed at reviving the two-state solution.
Israel on Friday accused the French president of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state”.
The foreign ministry said that “instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state”.
– ‘Go in with full force’ –
Negotiations aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza have continued, meanwhile, with the White House announcing Thursday that Israel had “signed off” on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group, however, said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, stopping short of rejecting it outright.
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Telegram that “after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses”.
“It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one,” he said.
Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.
Gaza’s civil defence agency told AFP that at least 45 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the north.
Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.
“These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes,” said neighbour Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing “children in pieces”.
“Stop the war!” said Mahmud Nasr, who lost relatives. “We do not want anything from you, just stop the war.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Jabalia strike, but said separately that the air force had hit “dozens of targets” across Gaza over the past day.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that at least 4,058 people had been killed since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,321, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
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On the ground in Israel, the sense of betrayal is palpable
Chris Kenny
As you walk through the ruins of family homes turned into slaughterhouses and see eucalypt plantations turned into killing fields, the brutal sense of waste and unconstrained hatred tightens your diaphragm. Even 19 months on from October 7, the horror is palpable.
When I was last in Israel almost 20 years ago there was a prevailing sense of hope and optimism because the political establishment believed the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza had created a platform for peace. Former prime minister, security hardliner and then opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu had resigned from cabinet in 2005 over the withdrawal, warning it would turn the “Gaza Strip into a base for Islamic terrorism which will threaten the state”, but he was widely viewed as a spent political force.
The mood struck me as rather dewy-eyed at the time because by then Hamas and other Islamist groups were already firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, even though it no longer was the occupying force. I was working for foreign minister Alexander Downer at the time and thought that at the very least, if Gaza was anything other than a runaway success, Netanyahu might not be done with just yet.
Almost 20 years on, Netanyahu’s political resurgence is old news – he has been Prime Minister over two stints for more than half of the intervening years. But the utter failure of the Gaza withdrawal experiment is still unfolding, with historic ramifications for Israel, the Middle East and Western civilisation.
Sky News host Chris Kenny discusses his time in Israel, chatting to the Israeli President Isaac Herzog and claiming the nation…
That the horrific Hamas invasion and terrorist atrocities of October 7, 2023, occurred under Netanyahu, the man who had warned of this outcome all those years ago, is one of the many paradoxes in this ongoing tragedy. Bibi, as he is widely known, is now deeply unpopular in Israel where the public is united in its resolve to have the hostages returned and divided over the best way to proceed.
The extent to which October 7 undermined the confidence of Israelis in their government and security structures is not well understood outside its borders. Here is a country that has been under constant attack since its inception, and prides itself on the crucial twin defences of intelligence vigilance and military capabilities, yet thousands of Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians were able to breach what was supposed to be a heavily guarded border, to slaughter, torture, rape and kidnap more than 1500 people in an orgy of violence that lasted a full day.
The torment continues more than 19 months on, with hostages held for 602 days and the resultant war still raging. The Israeli people are discombobulated by the failure; on October 7, victims hiding from terrorists took to ringing television stations sharing their distress live to air about why the Israel Defence Forces had not arrived to help them. Yet the goals of reclaiming all hostages, alive and dead, and eliminating Hamas so there is no longer such a threat hanging over the nation work against each other.
This is the diabolic dilemma deliberately created by Hamas. Every time Israel is criticised for its actions in Gaza, Hamas scores a propaganda win. The deaths of Palestinian civilians are central to the Hamas strategy. That is why Hamas shelters underground in its extensive tunnel network, leaving Gazan civilians above ground and exposed.
Global pressure intensifies on Israel on spurious grounds with wild claims about 14,000 babies being on the brink of death and aid being withheld to starve Palestinians. Israel is expected to defeat Hamas while it feeds the people Hamas uses as cannon fodder and sacrificial lambs.
Hamas hoards food aid and sells it to its own people to fund its terror, yet Israel is condemned for failing to meet the Hamas timetable. It is a grotesque standard that is applied to no other country, let alone one under unprovoked attack on at least four fronts and whose compatriots are still being held as bargaining chips in blatant breach of the Geneva conventions.
This week I met Israeli families whose children have been called up by the IDF to fight in Gaza, young people who survived the Nova music festival atrocity, a Muslim Bedouin man who saved Jews on that day and others who lost loved ones at Kibbutz Be’eri where more than 100 people were slaughtered. (Hamas still holds the bodies of six hostages taken from their community.) All the while we heard the dull thunder of explosions a few kilometres away in Gaza, where war goes on.
Israelis are weary but determined. They did not want war but it came to them. They want it to end but have differing views about how – give Hamas whatever it wants in exchange for the hostages or persist until Hamas is eliminated?
Israelis feel alone. The world is not in their corner – under sustained attack from the north, south and east, from state and non-state actors, they are portrayed as aggressors for daring to defend themselves.
That the full force of global diplomacy and media pressure is not directed at Hamas is an affront to moral norms and strategic imperatives – on this, most Israelis seem to agree, regardless of whether they see Bibi as sinister or saviour.
While it is true that most of the Western world has let down Israel or turned against it, there is a particular sense of betrayal when it comes to Australia. From the heroics of the Light Horse in World War I and the leadership of Doc Evatt at the UN in 1948 to the personal and political links in the decades since, Australia has been seen as a strong and reliable ally – no longer.
Israeli officials use terms such as “backstabbed” and “betrayed” when referring to criticism from Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong that is often based on wild claims and outright lies. President Isaac Herzog used our delegation’s visit as a conduit to issue a public invitation for the Prime Minister to visit – this was not issued as a diplomatic nicety but as a desperate plea for the Australian government to engage on the issues and potential solutions rather than keep taking cheap shots from the side.
Albanese amplifies implausible claims about Israel deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza when the real-world dilemma is to ensure aid can be delivered directly and free of charge, bypassing Hamas’s profiteering. A serious prime minister would have offered international aid expertise and resources to help find solutions but Albanese just lashed out, leaving Israel and the US to get on with the task of feeding Gazans.
After my 2006 visit I wrote a piece for Adelaide’s The Advertiser arguing that in the fight against Islamist extremism Israelis were at the epicentre in a similar way to how Berliners were the bellwethers in the Cold War. Israel’s struggle would be ours: “The battle is not between civilisations but for civilisation.”
To see how this is playing out we only need to take Hamas at its word. It is doing what it has always pledged to do, fulfilling an Islamist plan that will not countenance a two-state solution.
If this conflict were about Palestinian statehood it would have been resolved three decades ago. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and others want Israel wiped off the map and modernity wound back around the world.
They have terrorised Jews, traumatised their own people and scandalised Israel. It has been a success – inspiring Islamist extremists and anti-Semites worldwide, creating social and political division abroad and weakening support for Israel so dramatically that even Australia has stepped away.
These are worrying times. Israel’s fight remains our battle too. If pluralism and democracy can be eliminated in the Holy Land, they will be under threat globally. And if we cannot unite against a genocidal death cult, civilisation has lost its purpose.
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Israel approves Trump’s Gaza truce plan
AFP
Israeli army tanks are seen positioned as smoke rises in the background in southern Gaza, as seen from a humanitarian aid distribution center operated. Picture: AP
Israeli army tanks are seen positioned as smoke rises in the background in southern Gaza, as seen from a humanitarian aid distribution center operated. Picture: AP
Israel has accepted Washington’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire, the White House says, in a deal that includes the freeing of 10 hostages and a personal declaration by Donald Trump.
Israeli and Arab media report that under the deal proposed by Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff – which will be announced by Donald Trump if accepted by Hamas – 10 living and 18 dead hostages will be freed during a 60-day ceasefire. Five living and nine dead hostages will be released on Day 1 of the ceasefire, with another five living and nine dead released on Day 7.
In return, Israel would release 125 Palestinian terror convicts serving life sentences, 1,111 Gazans detained since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and 180 bodies of Palestinians currently held by Israel.
Channel 12 and al Arabiya report the deal includes a commitment by the US President to ensure Israel keeps to the ceasefire. Al Arabiya claims Mr Trump will announce the deal later on Friday (AEST).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostages’ families that he has approved the proposal in principal, while The Times of Israel reports Hamas is leaning toward accepting the deal, with some reservations.
As part of the US proposal, the United Nations will resume providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, in place of the new Israeli-backed mechanism that started operating this week, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
The deal doesn’t include an Israeli promise to end the war – a sticking point during talks, with Israel insisting any ceasefire would be temporary and Hamas insisting on a permanent end to the fighting.
“I can confirm that Special Envoy Witkoff and the president submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas, that Israel backed and supported. Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home.”
The White House spokeswoman later declined to confirm reports in Saudi and Israeli media that both sides had reached a 60-day ceasefire agreement and that Mr Trump was poised to make an announcement.
“If there is an announcement to be made, it will come from the White House — the president, myself, or special envoy Witkoff,” Ms Leavitt said.
Progress on a ceasefire deal came after Israel approved 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, the biggest expansion in decades.
Settlements in the West Bank – condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law though Israel disputes this – are seen as one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The decision to establish more, taken by the country’s security cabinet, was announced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz.
“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Mr Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the southern and northern West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.
At least two people were killed as hungry Gazans broke into a World Food Programme…
Mr Katz said the initiative “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come”.
In a statement, Hamas condemned the move as “further confirmation that the criminal Zionist occupation continues to impose facts on the ground by accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project”.
“This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions.”
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NETANYAHU FEARS BEING BOXED IN ON IRAN BY US
Dov Lieber – Laurence Norman
Seven weeks into negotiations between the US and Iran, Israeli officials are concerned that the Trump administration could agree to a deal that doesn’t block Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb but curtails the option of Israeli military action.
That puts Israel in a bind with its most important ally on its most pressing national security question: the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran. Israel’s efforts to stiffen the US negotiating position and preserve the option for a military strike at Iran’s facilities have led to frustration at the White House.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday (AEST) that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against taking actions – like a military strike – that could disrupt talks between the US and Iran. “I told him this would be very inappropriate to do right now, because we’re very close to a solution,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Netanyahu had expressed Israel’s concerns, warning that a bad deal was worse than no deal.
The nuclear negotiations began on April 12, and the two sides have met five times, with the US represented by Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iran’s team headed by its foreign minister. The two sides remain deadlocked over the Trump team’s insistence that Iran must give up the ability to enrich uranium.
Mr Trump said he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the standoff, but military options would be on the table if a deal could not be reached. In a letter sent to Iran’s supreme leader in March, he set a two-month timeframe for negotiations to succeed, but US officials played down the idea of a deadline.
Many in Israel worry the Trump administration won’t stick to its red line on uranium enrichment in its enthusiasm to reach a deal. Mr Trump had said he had not decided on the matter; while Mr Witkoff said before the talks the US recognised both sides would need to make concessions for a deal.
“The fear is because Trump wants a deal and Iran can stall for time, we will end up with a deal that does not adhere to the zero enrichment principle,” said Avner Golov, a former senior director at Israel’s National Security Council who is now with MIND Israel, a national security advisory group.
European and former US officials who have negotiated with Iran are also sceptical the administration will be able to cut a deal that doesn’t allow Iran some capacity to enrich uranium.
For now, the US and Iran are working on a framework. A senior US official said the US was preparing to give Iran a “term sheet” that would include an end to enrichment. “If they don’t accept these terms, it’s not going to be a good day for the Iranians,” they said.
Mr Netanyahu said his government would back a deal that would end Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program. Iran, however, insisted on the ability to enrich uranium as a core demand over two decades of nuclear negotiations.
Some in Israel argue it should attack Iran’s nuclear program even without US support, while the opportunity remains open. But that would alienate its key ally and be less effective, more or difficult to pull off without US military help.
“Israel isn’t going to go for a military option without American agreement,” said Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. “So there is concern both that the agreement won’t be good enough and that we will miss another opportunity to take care of the nuclear issue more deeply.”
The Wall Street Journal
Dov Lieber – Laurence Norman
Seven weeks into negotiations between the US and Iran, Israeli officials are concerned that the Trump administration could agree to a deal that doesn’t block Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb but curtails the option of Israeli military action.
That puts Israel in a bind with its most important ally on its most pressing national security question: the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran. Israel’s efforts to stiffen the US negotiating position and preserve the option for a military strike at Iran’s facilities have led to frustration at the White House.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday (AEST) that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against taking actions – like a military strike – that could disrupt talks between the US and Iran. “I told him this would be very inappropriate to do right now, because we’re very close to a solution,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Netanyahu had expressed Israel’s concerns, warning that a bad deal was worse than no deal.
The nuclear negotiations began on April 12, and the two sides have met five times, with the US represented by Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iran’s team headed by its foreign minister. The two sides remain deadlocked over the Trump team’s insistence that Iran must give up the ability to enrich uranium.
Mr Trump said he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the standoff, but military options would be on the table if a deal could not be reached. In a letter sent to Iran’s supreme leader in March, he set a two-month timeframe for negotiations to succeed, but US officials played down the idea of a deadline.
Many in Israel worry the Trump administration won’t stick to its red line on uranium enrichment in its enthusiasm to reach a deal. Mr Trump had said he had not decided on the matter; while Mr Witkoff said before the talks the US recognised both sides would need to make concessions for a deal.
“The fear is because Trump wants a deal and Iran can stall for time, we will end up with a deal that does not adhere to the zero enrichment principle,” said Avner Golov, a former senior director at Israel’s National Security Council who is now with MIND Israel, a national security advisory group.
European and former US officials who have negotiated with Iran are also sceptical the administration will be able to cut a deal that doesn’t allow Iran some capacity to enrich uranium.
For now, the US and Iran are working on a framework. A senior US official said the US was preparing to give Iran a “term sheet” that would include an end to enrichment. “If they don’t accept these terms, it’s not going to be a good day for the Iranians,” they said.
Mr Netanyahu said his government would back a deal that would end Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program. Iran, however, insisted on the ability to enrich uranium as a core demand over two decades of nuclear negotiations.
Some in Israel argue it should attack Iran’s nuclear program even without US support, while the opportunity remains open. But that would alienate its key ally and be less effective, more or difficult to pull off without US military help.
“Israel isn’t going to go for a military option without American agreement,” said Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. “So there is concern both that the agreement won’t be good enough and that we will miss another opportunity to take care of the nuclear issue more deeply.”
The Wall Street Journal
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RADICAL CLERIC SLAMS MUSLIM LEADERS
‘Join the caravan’: plea for support in court battle with Jewish body
Mohammad Alfares
A Sydney-based Islamic fundamentalist at the centre of a Federal Court battle has accused Muslim leaders of abandoning him in a case he claims pits “Islam against disbelievers”, while urging them to publicly defend the right to quote inflammatory scripture about Jews.
Wissam Haddad, who also goes by the name Abu Ousayd and leads the hardline Al Madina Dawah Centre, this week released a video appealing for religious unity ahead of a looming court showdown with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
The Federal Court proceedings, which are expected to test the limits of religious expression and hate speech laws, centre on whether Mr Haddad’s public sermons – referencing verses in the Koran about Jews – amount to incitement or protected religious expression
The proceedings have been brought by ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot AO, and allege that Mr Haddad’s public speeches included derogatory generalisations about Jewish people, in which he described them as “vile people” and a “treacherous people”, and claimed they hide like “rats” when fighting Muslim men.
In the video posted on Tuesday, Mr Haddad said he was concerned that Muslim leaders were retreating from the right to quote Islamic texts in public.
“For the past couple of months I had been struggling, striving, trying to have the Muslim community at large and specifically the sheiks (clerics) and Muslim organisations understand that what I am currently facing in the Federal Court is not an issue of Abu Ousayd or Al Madina Dawah Centre versus the Jewish lobby … rather, it’s a battle between Islam and kuffar (disbelievers),” he said. “They wish to … make those ayat and hadith (Koran verses) and historic accounts that speak about the Jews to what they see as insulting … they seek to make it criminal.”
Mr Haddad claimed many Islamic organisations had refused to support his legal battle and warned that failing to do so would set a dangerous precedent to their “God-given right.”
The Australian understands that despite his desperate plea for support from some of the nation’s most prominent Muslim figures and organisations, Mr Haddad was largely flagged as a rogue cleric and vehemently rejected. He has publicly insulted, attacked and accused many of the mainstream organisations who disagreed with his views as being “kuffar”.
“After repeated attempts, after numerous meetings with Muslim organisations and sheiks to try and get them to understand the seriousness of this case, many are still in denial,” Mr Haddad said.
Referencing extremist preacher Ahmed Zoud’s public apology to the Jews after a 2023 sermon in which he called them “bloodthirsty monsters” who “ran like rats” from the October 7 Hamas attack, Mr Haddad said his plea for financial and moral support came as a “last push”, adding that the Muslim community must “prove to Allah” their loyalty.
“We have all seen the video of Sheik Ahmed Zoud coming out openly, publicly apologising to the Jewish community. Apologising for the very same ayat and hadith (verses) which were referenced in the majority of my talks,” he said.
“So as a last attempt, as a last push, I ask you, the Muslim community and specifically the sheiks and the Muslim organisations, to get behind this cause. To join the caravan … Stand up for this God-given right that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala had given us to quote from the Koran and from the Sunnah. Do not sit on the sidelines.”
Mr Haddad has previously boasted of his friendship with Islamic State jihadis Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar and said it was “not illegal” to be friends with convicted terrorists, while spruiking his relationship with “dear brother” Anjem Choudary, one of Britain’s most notorious extremists. Mr Haddad has never been charged with any terrorism-related offence.
A former ASIO spy called “Marcus”, who infiltrated Mr Haddad’s prayer centre between 2016 and 2023, revealed to the ABC’s Four Corners that young people in his controversial small-scale prayer centre in Bankstown were being indoctrinated into supporting Islamic State.
The Federal Court case between Mr Haddad and the ECAJ is scheduled to run for four days, beginning June 10.
French President Emmanuel Macron angers Israel, Hamas to look at ceasefire again
Israel accused France of going on a “crusade against the Jewish state” after President Emmanuel Macron raised their ire as Hamas had a change of heart over the new US-brokered ceasefire.
Merryn Johns, Tiffany Bakker and Zoe Smith
A U.S. plan for Gaza seen by Reuters on Friday proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages alive and dead in the first week, in exchange…
Hamas has changed its mind about outright rejecting a US pitched ceasefire with Israel which involves the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of a further 18 in exchange for laying down arms for 60 days.
A day after knocking back the offer, Senior Hamas official Basem Naim released a more nuanced statment on their position on Friday.
Children collect items as Palestinians check the site of an overnight Israeli strike, in Jabalia in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
Children collect items as Palestinians check the site of an overnight Israeli strike, in Jabalia in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
He said the proposal shows Israel “fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation,” but said Hamas was nevertheless “currently undertaking a thorough and responsible review of the new proposal.”
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff sent the agreement, which has been signed off by Israel, to Hamas on Thursday.
“We do believe that it has some significant promise,” US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“There is some optimism.”
‘CRUSADE AGAINST THE JEWISH STATE’
Israel accused French President Emmanuel Macron of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state” on Friday after he called for European countries to harden their stance on Israel if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve.
“There is no humanitarian blockade. That is a blatant lie,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement, defending its efforts to allow in aid.
“But instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state. No doubt its national day will be October 7,” it added, alluding to the date of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
French President Emmanuel Macron and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talk during the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore. Picture: AP Photo
French President Emmanuel Macron and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talk during the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore. Picture: AP Photo
Israel last week partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on supplies entering Gaza, which is enduring severe shortages of food and medicines even as truckloads of humanitarian assistance have begun to trickle in.
Mr Macron, meanwhile, has stepped up his statements of support for the Palestinians of late.
On Friday he said European countries should “harden the collective position” against Israel if it did not respond appropriately to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including keeping open the possibility of sanctions.
“If we abandon Gaza, if we consider there is a free pass for Israel, even if we do condemn the terrorist attacks, we will kill our credibility,” Mr Macron told a top defence forum in Singapore.
He also called the recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity”.
France is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia an international conference at the UN in New York meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – an outcome the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes.
In its statement Friday, the Israeli foreign ministry said: “Hamas, for its part, has already praised Macron’s statements. Hamas knows why.”
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Joe Hildebrand: Peaceful and pragmatic Aussies rejected hate and outrage at election
The great lost lesson from the election is, as a peaceful and pragmatic people, we don’t want hate and outrage – and that is what makes us the greatest country on earth, writes Joe Hildebrand.
On the night of Saturday, May 3, hundreds of the Labor faithful gathered inside the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL, wildly agog at the waterfall of seats cascading towards them.
Meanwhile outside, a much smaller and decidedly more miserable group of people stood on the footpath opposite shouting “shame” and “genocide” and the like.
I hadn’t even noticed them on the way in and barely noticed them on the way out. But four weeks on, as the fallout from the incredible result continues, it has just occurred to me that this was perhaps the most telling moment of the campaign.
Amid all the ugliness of the Israel-Palestine conflict that was brought to bear in an Australian election, no one and nothing was more hated by activists and advocates on both sides than the Albanese government.
In part, this was simply because it was the government – and as such was the source of discontent for anyone with a grievance about the way of the world. But it was also more visceral because it was Labor.
Leftist hardliners were furious about what they saw as the ALP betraying their Palestinian cause du jour, and conservatives were convinced the closet socialists in Labor were abandoning Israel.
Pro-Palestine activists gather at Town Hall to protest the NSW Labor Party Conference last July. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
New Muslim movements sprang up in safe Labor seats vowing to destroy the government and were aided in their attempts to do so by the Greens. Those seats soon appeared unsafe in more ways than one.
Meanwhile, Labor’s most senior Jewish MP was all but booed offstage at a Jewish summit because of the government’s perceived failure to combat anti-Semitism in the community.
For many one-eyed activists on the left, including those bleating across the road from Labor’s victory party, the election was supposed to be a referendum on Gaza. The fact that it was a victory party is a clue to how that referendum went.
Since then, the obliteration of the Greens, the decimation of the Liberals and the immolation of the Coalition have all consumed the headlines and the Israel-Palestine inferno has been reduced to the backburner.
And this is perhaps the great untold story of this historic election result. A story, like the great sitcom Seinfeld, about nothing.
Hardline Muslim and left-wing activists tried to inject anger and hatred into this campaign – or, at
This was overwhelmingly directed at Labor, whose MPs had their electorate offices blockaded and vandalised and whose campaign materials were burnt and daubed with blood-red paint.
Jewish groups were also by turns furious and frustrated with the government – although their anger never descended into such actions.
And yet relentlessly besieged by both sides on this most hot-blooded of issues, Labor emerged with a record majority.
So what does this tell us?
Clearly it tells us nothing about Australians’ support for one side of the conflict or the other. The very fact that both sides saw the government as supporting the opposite side is proof enough of that.
On the contrary, it tells us that Australians simply did not want this incredibly complex, divisive and dangerous debate on our electoral radar.
We did not want to choose sides or vote for or against it. We wanted to vote on our own struggles here at home, not foreign struggles on the other side of the world.
And this is something that those same one-eyed activists and ideologues always fail to see. Perhaps no-eyed would be a better description.
We are indeed the lucky country, however pejorative that term may have been when it was coined – admittedly by the sort of people who use the word “pejorative”.
Unlike Israel and Palestine, we have never been beset by civil war and we see no need to import it.
By contrast, we are the most successful multicultural nation on earth.
Whatever challenges we have among different ethnicities or religions, our mild squabbles and skirmishes put Europe and Asia, the Americas and Africa to shame.
And while we still struggle to bridge the gap between our Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, there are few – perhaps apart from Lidia Thorpe – who would argue this is grounds for arson, let alone armed conflict.
That is the great lost lesson from the election. We just don’t want that shit. We are a peaceful and pragmatic people.
And that is what makes us the greatest country on earth.
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GRETA THUNBERG GOING TO GAZA
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg will travel to Gaza on a humanitarian ship on Sunday to protest Israel’s war on the territory, as Hamas rejected the latest US-backed ceasefire deal.
The 22-year-old had set sail for Gaza earlier this month but the trip was cancelled when the FFC ship she was on suffered damage en route in a suspected Israeli drone strike.
Joining Ms Thunberg and other activists will be outspoken left-wing French-Palestinian politician and member of France’s LFI party Rima Hassan.
“To guarantee our security, and also the success of our mission, we need maximum mobilisation by the public for this initiative,” she posted.
Ms Hassan said the protest operation had “several aims: to condemn the humanitarian blockade and ongoing genocide, the impunity granted to the state of Israel and raise international awareness.”
Aid has begun trickling back into Gaza in recent days but humanitarian groups warn the war-ravaged territory is facing mass starvation.
According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendible to 70 days, and the release of 10 living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and are seen as one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The decision to establish more, taken by the country’s security cabinet, was announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who is in charge of managing the communities.
“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the southern and northern West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.
“Next step: sovereignty!” he added.
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Mid East suffering
It’s horrifying to see thousands of Palestinians desperate to keep their starving children alive, forced to fight for rations of food (“Thousands of Palestinians loot”, 30/5). Meanwhile Israel and the US play around with new ceasefire options, although in March they violated the previous ceasefire agreement with Hamas, which was approved by President Trump. Phrases such as “western civilisation” and “Judaeo-Christian values” ring hollow as we witness the ongoing suffering and killings in Gaza.
Caroline Graham, Cromer
Land of misery
Your brief report (“US presents Israel-approved ceasefire”, 30/5), again raises hope for an end to the nightmare for Gaza and for the hostages there. But then we immediately learn that Israel is expanding West Bank settlements. The situation demonstrates how Hamas’S brutal October 7 attack of 2023 and Israel’s unbelievably cruel response are both rooted in Israel’s baked-in negative view of both its own Palestinian citizens and its Palestinian neighbours. The Jewish state’s 58-year occupation and settlement of Palestinian land and stifling siege of Gaza provoked October 7. That does not excuse it, but both Israeli actions have to end if real peace is to break out! Israel’s finance minister shouting, “Next step: sovereignty!” shows how far away those changes might be.
Ken Blackman, Inverloch
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Letters Hobart Mercury
Holy Land misnomer
“The Holy Land” – a misnomer. If it is “Holy” the various gods followed by present and former occupants are not influencing their adherents to make it so. We cannot condemn the perpetrators of the ongoing Gaza mass killings without being labelled “anti-Semitic”. A word battle of “semantics” rather than “Semitics”?
Rob Hill
Impose sanctions
While it is admirable for the Prime Minister to slam Israel on the blocking of Gaza aid (Mercury). A doctor losing nine of her children in an air strike, famine and limbless children a picture of the horrific life experienced by the people of Palestine. Time for Anthony Albanese to man up, recognise the State and impose sanctions on Israel.
- Ross New Town
Husic’s demands
I would like to hear Ed Husic, among his many demands for immediate and substantial food and medical aid to be given to those living in Gaza, make an equally strong demand for the immediate release by Hamas of Israeli hostages.
Michael McCall
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Hamas ‘thoroughly reviewing’ Israel’s response to US ceasefire proposal
Draft reportedly includes release of 28 hostages in first week, 60-day ceasefire and aid for Gaza when deal signed off
Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and agencies
Fri 30 May 2025 22.59 AEST
Hamas has received Israel’s response to a US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal and is “thoroughly reviewing” it, even though the reply does not meet any of the Palestinians’ “just and legitimate demands”, one of the group’s officials said.
The White House said late on Thursday Israel had agreed to the US truce proposal and Hamas said it was reviewing the plan, although the militant group described the agreement as more biased in favour of Israel than previous proposals.
As a US-backed system for distributing food in the shattered territory expanded, Israeli media reported that its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy.
Netanyahu’s office did not confirm the reports, but the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters in Washington that Israel had signed off on the proposal.
US distances itself from Gaza food delivery group amid questions over leadership and funding
She did not detail its contents. However, a draft seen by Reuters on Friday proposed a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages – alive and dead – in the first week and the release of 125 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The plan, which says it is guaranteed by Trump and the mediators, Egypt and Qatar, includes sending aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement. The plan stipulates that Hamas will release the last 30 hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place, and does not contain an Israeli promise to end the war.
The Palestinian militant group said it was studying the proposal, and the senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group was still discussing it. Abu Zuhri said its terms echoed Israel’s position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or allow in aid as Hamas had demanded.
However, a top Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters on Friday that even though the response failed to meet any of the group’s “just and legitimate demands”, it was thoroughly reviewing it.
In a statement a few hours later, Hamas said it was holding consultations with other “Palestinian factions”, a term referring to other groups operating under its rule in Gaza, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March after only two months when Israel renewed its offensive.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all 58 hostages still held in Gaza be returned before it will agree to end the war.
The Israeli government fears that a lasting ceasefire and withdrawal would leave Hamas with significant influence in Gaza, even if it surrenders formal power. With time, the Israelis fear, Hamas might be able to rebuild its military might and eventually launch more 7 October-style attacks.
On the other hand, Hamas fears that Israel could break the ceasefire – as it did last March – and resume the war, which the Israeli government would be permitted to do after 60 days under the terms of the deal.
The militant group has also rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
While evaluating the deal, Hamas said the new proposal was more biased in favour of Israel than previous proposals, according to a source close to Hamas.
“The Zionist [Israeli] response, in essence, means perpetuating the occupation and continuing the killing and famine,” Naim told the Associated Press. He said it “does not respond to any of our people’s demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine”.
But Netanyahu also faces political constraints: his far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he ends the war too soon. That would leave him more vulnerable to prosecution on longstanding corruption charges and to investigations into the failures surrounding the 7 October attack.
The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, which is considered illegal under international law, told Radio 103 on Thursday: “I stayed in the government to make sure that we return to fighting until the full goals of the war are realised, primarily the destruction of Hamas and the release of the hostages. The second I realise that the state of Israel is not going to victory in the Gaza Strip and is going to give up and surrender to a terrorist organisation, I will not only leave the government, I will overthrow it in the fastest way possible.”
Another far-right minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Friday it was time to use “full force” in Gaza. “Mr Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again – there are no more excuses,” the national security minister said on his Telegram channel. “The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.”
Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Yonatan Samerano, whose body is being held in Gaza, was among the family members who met Netanyahu on Thursday. She said the news that only 10 hostages and several bodies would be released had once again plunged the families into indescribable uncertainty.
“It’s again a selection, you know, all the families, we are right now standing and thinking, is it going to be my son? Isn’t it? What will be after part of them will come, what will be with the rest?”
“If they [Hamas] want guarantees, we will give them guarantees that after the last hostages will back to Israel, we will stop the war,” Samerano said. “I’m telling you, Netanyahu, say yes. All our countries say yes, the families say yes. All the families, when we are saying, stop the war and give us the hostages back.”
Meanwhile, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private logistics group backed by the US and endorsed by Israel, expanded its food distribution to a third site on Thursday.
Heavily criticised by the UN and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, the group’s operation began this week in Gaza, where the UN has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after Israel’s 11-week blockade on aid entering the territory.
The launch was marred by tumultuous scenes on Tuesday when Israeli troops opened fire on a large crowd, killing at least one civilian and injuring dozens. The chaotic start to the operation has raised international pressure on Israel to get more food in and halt the fighting in Gaza. GHF says it has so far supplied about 1.8m meals and plans to open more sites in the coming weeks.
Israeli jets continued to pound the Palestinian territory on Friday, killing at least 14 people in the Jabaliya refugee camp, medics who received the bodies at Shifa hospital in northern Gaza said. The previous day, Israeli strikes killed another 45 people, including 23 in a strike on the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating Hamas attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
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If the horrors unfolding in Gaza are not a red line for Australia to take stronger action then I don’t know what is
David Pocock
Everyone knows the Australian government cannot end the war alone, but we do have an important
Much has been made this week over Anthony Albanese’s strongest comments yet criticising the Netanyahu government’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza. While welcome, his rhetoric calling this an “outrage”, “unacceptable” and “untenable” feels inadequate in the face of what looks like a genocide unfolding in full view of the world.
These words have not been matched with any new “concrete action” of the kind being called for by what feels like just about everyone, and foreshadowed by three of Australia’s closest allies, the UK, France and Canada. The prime minister hasn’t been able to offer a satisfactory explanation as to why Australia wasn’t a signatory to this stronger statement of intent, choosing to move away from the mantle of middle power leader we’ve worn so proudly in times past.
Australia has a proud history of standing up against human catastrophe. Gaza should be no exception
Ed Husic
The time for stronger global action is now. For too long the international community has failed to follow up words of condemnation with action. Palestinian people have been killed in their tens of thousands, two million teeter on the brink of starvation and the Israeli government continues to build new settlements in the West Bank. The pleas for help are becoming ever more desperate, like that of Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, who broke down while addressing the security council over the deaths of children in Gaza.
UN envoy breaks down in tears over death of children in Gaza – video
In the absence of political leadership we’ve seen people with moral courage step up. Surgeons armed with smartphones, not only saving lives but broadcasting in real time and in unprecedented detail the trauma that this conflict is inflicting on innocent people, especially children.
Earlier this week I hosted an event with one of these medical missionaries, Dr Mohammed Mustafa, a British Australian emergency physician of Palestinian heritage who has completed two rotations on the ground in Gaza, most recently in March this year. More than 1,000 Canberrans packed into parliament’s Great Hall to hear him speak, but despite the crowd you could have heard a pin drop.
Dr Mo talked about the horrific choices medical personnel face trying to save who they can during the mass casualty events that are all too common. He came with a message of hope and compassion. He read a statement from the family of an Israeli hostage, condemned the attacks of October 7 and articulated the simple truth that “killing women and children is wrong, no matter if it’s Palestinian children and women or Israeli”.
Dr Mo also lay down the challenge to the Australian government to step up and help fund a deployable children’s hospital, and to engage diplomatically with Israel to facilitate its entry to Gaza. Rebuking the prime minister’s assertion that Australia wasn’t a “major player” in the Middle East, he said: “You don’t have to be a major player to feed children. You don’t have to be a major player to heal children. We need healers in the Middle East, and Australia can be the healer. It can lead the world.”
As Dr Mo spoke I was reminded of one of my heroes, Desmond Tutu. He was constantly urging people to recognise our shared humanity and that “if you are neutral in times of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. This is indeed a time to focus on our shared humanity. And the fact that Jewish people are not Prime Minister Netanyahu, Gazans are not Hamas. Here in Australia we must come together, not turn our frustrations on our fellow Australians. Dr Mo can serve as an example to us all. After what he’s seen, he has every right to rage, but chooses instead to see the pain of everyone affected by these horrors.
Dr Mo was one of the first to start what he calls “Doctor diaries”, sending content from inside Nasser hospital at great personal risk in a bid to focus global attention on Gaza. It’s something we’ve seen others continue.
Everyone knows we cannot end the war alone, but we do have an important role to play as a middle power that believes in an international rules-based order.
In June last year I called on the Albanese government to consider targeted sanctions against members of the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces. Almost 12 months and tens of thousands more deaths later, those calls continue to grow, including from within Labor’s own ranks.
We should have a consistent, values-based approach to how we respond to war and disasters and how we use our humanitarian program. This includes providing an equitable amount of aid and assistance based on need, not politics. Alongside this Australia must stop exporting weapons or parts of weapons that could be used to kill and injure civilians, and start providing emergency visas to the family members of Australians.
If the horror unfolding in Gaza is not our country’s red line for stronger action then I don’t know what is.
David Pocock is an independent senator in the ACT
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