Australia is warning it could stop repatriation flights out of Lebanon due to the low take-up of seats as worries flare over an all-out war.
The global community, including Australia,
“Enough blood has been spilled and it’s time for the suffering and starvation and the slaughter that’s happening in Gaza to end,” he told AAP.
Israel began its offensive against Hamas in Gaza after fighters from the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the enclave has been laid to waste.
Australian ministers have been reluctant to condemn the attacks and have instead called on Israel to comply with international law and decried the number of civilian deaths.
Israel maintains it is complying with international law and seeking to avoid civilian casualties, blaming Hamas for hiding among civilians and using its infrastructure to mask operations and weapon stocks.
Clare, who represents a diverse western Sydney electorate, said the war in the Middle East had a greater impact on members of his community than most other Australians.
“For most Australians, they see the death and destruction on television and they see a war on the other side of the world,” he said.
“For my community, those images of dead people are often people they are related to, their family and their friends.
Israeli assault on Lebanon
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has warned Israel not to take military action in Lebanon “that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza”.
The comments were in line with Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s warning Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not expressly condone Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon to strike Hezbollah as Miller did, instead saying Israel had the right to self-defence but how it did so mattered.
He insisted the two were not incompatible after the opposition accused him of being contradictory by calling for de-escalation while backing Israel’s right to self-defence as it hunted down Hezbollah.
Cooled hostilities were needed for a diplomatic solution to succeed and avoid escalation “ad infinitum with no end”, he said.
Almost 2,000 Australians, permanent residents and their immediate families had been repatriated from Lebanon as of Thursday, with another two flights due to depart from Beirut.
The federal government is warning it will assess the viability of continuing to operate flights out of Lebanon with only about half of the 660 seats available on two planes out of Beirut on Wednesday taken up.
