Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears’ as Pressure Mounts on Israel

Canada, Australia and Britain have increased pressure on Israel over the starvation and the killing of civilians in Gaza, with Australia’s prime minister on Friday saying the situation has “gone beyond the world’s worst fears.”

Israel blocked aid deliveries to Gaza between March and May after it ended a cease-fire with Hamas. Since then, a private Israeli-backed group has run a system in which people go to a few sites in the Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza to receive aid. But hundreds of Palestinians have been killed at these locations, where Israeli soldiers have used live ammunition to contain unrest and disperse crowds of desperate people.

Aid groups have said that mass starvation is spreading in Gaza, and that the insecurity and Israeli restrictions have made food deliveries impossible. Haunting images of hollow-eyed, skeletal children have emerged in recent days from Gaza, where doctors say people are dying from hunger.

“Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said in a statement. He called on Israel to immediately allow the United Nations and aid organizations to carry out their work safely.

Mr. Albanese’s statement was the latest in a growing chorus of criticism of Israel, including from some of its closest allies, over its restrictions on aid deliveries in Gaza and its war in the enclave, which has been going on for 21 months. France on Thursday became the first Group of 7 country to announce that it would recognize a Palestinian state. “Today the most urgent thing is that the war in Gaza cease and the civilian population be helped,” France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said.

A few hours before Mr. Albanese’s statement, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada condemned Israel’s “failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza.”

Mr. Carney said Israel’s control of aid delivery must be replaced by a system led by international organizations. “This denial of humanitarian aid is a violation of international law,” he said in a statement.

Earlier, on Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain also called on Israel to “change course” and allow aid to enter Gaza without delay. “The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” he said.

These statements from Canada, Britain and Australia came days after they joined a group of 28 countries, including many allies of Israel, and the European Union in condemning “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians.”

The Israeli government says that the new system is devised to prevent Hamas from stealing aid, and this week dismissed the aid groups’ claims, accusing them of repeating Hamas’s talking points. David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman, has blamed the suffering in Gaza on Hamas, and said that there was “no famine caused by Israel.”

Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas led an attack on Israel in October 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. The Israeli military campaign has destroyed much of Gaza. More than 57,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, have been killed, according to the Gazan health authorities, which do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Representatives from Israel, Hamas and the United States have been negotiating on a cease-fire in Qatar. But hopes that a deal would be reached soon were dealt a blow on Thursday when the Israeli government and President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said they were recalling their teams, though the fate of the negotiations was unclear.