The Australian government has said it is deeply disappointed by comments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he rebuffed international calls for a pathway to a Palestinian state.
The assistant foreign minister, Tim Watts, said the remarks undermined prospects for peace. He also urged Israel to “live up to” its commitment to uphold international law in its military operations in Gaza, where the death toll has passed 25,000 Palestinians.
Speaking to Sky News, Watts said the Australian government still believed “that in a post-conflict world there can’t be any reduction in the size of the territory of Gaza and there can’t be any permanent Israeli presence within Gaza”.
The Australian government has long backed a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians “can live side by side in security and prosperity within internationally agreed borders”. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, in a trip to the region last week, renewed calls for a “pathway to a Palestinian state”.
But Netanyahu said on Sunday that Gaza “must be demilitarised, under Israel’s full security control” and that he would “not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River”.
The comments followed Netanyahu’s declaration on Thursday that his stance on Israeli security control over Gaza and the West Bank “collides” with the idea of Palestinian sovereignty, adding: “What can you do?”
Watts said Netanyahu’s comments were “deeply disappointing” because the Australian government “supports the aspirations of the Palestinian people for self-determination and ultimately for a state of their own”.
“We’ve called out comments, frankly, like these recent comments from Mr Netanyahu that undermine these prospects for a long-term negotiated settlement to this ongoing dispute,” Watts told Sky News on Monday.
“We’ve also called out other obstacles to peace like illegal settlement activity in the West Bank.”
Watts said the Australian government had been “clear and consistent since the outbreak of this conflict in saying that Israel has a right to defend itself against the appalling terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7”, when about 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel.
Watts cited “the appalling sexual violence, the appalling murders, the appalling kidnapping of hostages that are still held in Gaza more than 100 days after those terrible attacks”.
“We’ve also said that the way Israel exercises its right of self-defence matters, and that while Hamas has flagrantly trashed international law [and] international humanitarian law, Israel as a democracy is held to a higher standard, as all democracies bring on to themselves,” he said.
“So we’ve made it clear that principles of international law like proportionality, distinction, precaution must be upheld by Israel.”
He said the loss of innocent lives in Gaza had been “harrowing” and “needs to stop”. Watts said any enduring ceasefire must include the return of hostages and “a cessation of rocket fire from Hamas into Israel”.
The Labor backbench MP Maria Vamvakinou, who is a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, said no one should be surprised by Netanyahu’s stance as he had made similar comments in the past.
“Someone like Benjamin Netanyahu is not a partner for peace, and hasn’t been for some time,” Vamvakinou told Guardian Australia.
“I reject his assertions outright, as do most people who recognise lasting support for peace for Israel and Palestine by recognition of Palestinian statehood.”
Vamvakinou backed calls from her Labor colleague Julian Hill for a crackdown on violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. She said she had been to the region several times and seen the “friction” that settlements caused.
Vamvakinou pointed to support in the Labor party platform for recognition of Palestinian statehood, and said this should be accelerated. “Step forward, step up and recognise Palestine,” she said.
The Greens said the Albanese government “must wake up to the fact that there is no military solution to the conflict in Palestine”.
“These comments are the latest example of why Prime Minister Netanyahu is one of the biggest blockers to a just peace,” the Greens’ foreign affairs spokesperson, Jordon Steele-John, said.
“Our government must call for what our community has been calling for months now: an end to the State of Israel’s illegal occupation and blockade of the Palestinian territories, a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and the prosecution of the perpetrators of war crimes.”
Wong and the shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, did not respond to detailed questions on Monday, with their offices pointing to their remarks from last week.
Wong’s spokesperson said on Friday that her visit to the region had “reaffirmed the foreign minister’s view that achieving long-term peace and security for Israel in its region requires the establishment of an independent Palestinian state”.
Birmingham told ABC News Radio on Friday that a two-state solution was bipartisan policy in Australia, but this would require negotiated terms “that are acceptable to both parties”.
He said Israel must have “security and safety from terrorist attacks and obviously, that’s the current priority in the wake of the atrocities of October 7”.
The US president, Joe Biden, said after a call with Netanyahu on Saturday that different models for a two-state solution were available and they would continue to discuss the issue. Biden alluded to the possibility of a demilitarised Palestinian state.
Comment is being sought from the Israeli embassy and the general delegation of Palestine to Australia.
