Australian Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong has met Israeli and Palestinian leaders on an official visit to the region, including formal talks with representatives from Palestinian communities sited war-torn Gaza.
She met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the country’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and visited a Holocaust remembrance centre.
She did not, however, hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
She also visited the West Bank where she met with community members, and reaffirmed the government’s position that Israeli settlements in the area were not consistent with the “pathway to a two-state solution.”
Australia has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza, though Senator Wong shared “strong concerns the Australian people have about the death toll in Gaza” with Mr. Herzog.
She said later in a series of tweets on X (formerly Twitter) that, “We spoke about averting regional escalation, our deep concern over the conflict’s civilian toll and Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation, and the steps necessary to achieve a path out of the conflict.”
The senator said she would use Australia’s position to call for the release of hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.
Concerns Over Palestinian Aid Funding
She also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, to whom she expressed her expectation that the $21.5 million in aid provided by Australia to date must be used for delivering vital services to civilians such as healthcare and childhood education, in a warning against allowing terror groups to access the money.“I expressed to them that it was extremely important, given the focus on this, that any funds Australia provides are used appropriately for the provision of the services that we are seeking to fund,” she told reporters in Jerusalem.
But opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was “totally inadequate” that the government was relying on assurances from the Palestinian Authority—which does not govern the Gaza region—that Australian taxpayer money would not be misspent, noting there were well-documented concerns with already-delivered funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, instead, being diverted to Hamas.
The government has also received criticism for not supporting South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held firm, saying that while the government respected the ICJ, “that doesn’t mean we agree with some of the assumptions they have in the South African case at all.”
