The Australian government has warned that Israel’s plans for a military offensive on the southern Gaza town of Rafah could have “devastating consequences” for Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, also suggested on Monday that a failure to ensure special care for more than 1 million civilians in the area, many in makeshift tents, would “cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has sought to brush off growing international criticism about the planned ground invasion of Rafah, saying: “We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave.”
To date, however, Netanyahu has not spelled out where civilians could safely go.
Wong said 153 countries, including Australia, had already voted at the UN general assembly for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
“Many of Israel’s friends, including Australia, have expressed deep concerns about reports of an Israeli military operation in Rafah,” she said on Monday.
“There is growing international consensus: Israel must listen to its friends and it must listen to the international community.”
Wong said Israel had a special obligation to “more than a million civilians sheltering in and around Rafah”.
“Many civilians who were displaced in Israeli operations in the north have moved south to this area, often under Israeli direction,” she said.
“Israel now must exercise special care in relation to these civilians. Not doing so would have devastating consequences for those civilians and cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests.”
The comments come amid reports of growing frustration between the Israeli government and its top ally, the United States.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the US president, Joe Biden, and his aides no longer viewed Netanyahu as “a productive partner”.
The paper said some of Biden’s aides were urging the president to be more publicly critical of Netanyahu over the Gaza military operation.
Netanyahu has argued that Israel must pursue “the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah”, while the Palestinian Authority said this would be “a dangerous prelude to implementing the rejected Israeli policy aimed at displacing the Palestinian people from their land”.
Hamas has argued a new advance into Rafah would “blow up” ongoing negotiations to return hostages in return for a ceasefire.
Australia has now joined other allies of Israel in warning of the consequences of a Rafah operation.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Saturday that the people in Gaza “cannot disappear into thin air” while the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, raised concerns about an “unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt”.
The potential of a Rafah operation loomed large over a parliamentary debate in Canberra on Monday.
The Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather moved a motion calling on the Australian government to “end its support for the State of Israel’s invasion of Gaza” and also to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
The International Court of Justice has yet to make a final decision on South Africa’s allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but in a provisional ruling last month ordered it to “take all measures within its power to prevent” genocidal acts and “prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.
Additional reporting by Emine Sinmaz
