Australia says Israel's ground invasion in Gaza will have "devastating" impacts on Palestinian civilians, as the foreign minister reiterated the government's strong objection the military offensive.
The Israeli military ordered civilians in parts of Rafah to leave on Monday ahead of a planned ground invasion in an area where more than one million Palestinians had sheltered after evacuating from other parts of Gaza.
Penny Wong said she had reiterated to Israel Australia's opposition to the invasion on Wednesday and called for a humanitarian ceasefire to enable hostages to be released and unimpeded aid to flow.
