Bill Shorten has said Palestinians in Gaza should be “prioritised” and urged Israel to look after civilians at risk after Israel’s parliament voted to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) from Israel and the areas of Gaza, the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem within 90 days.
Meanwhile, the opposition said the Albanese government should divert the millions of dollars in funding to Unrwa to other more “trusted” humanitarian organisations.
The UN humanitarian assistance body, which has operated since 1948, has been providing food, water and medicine for the more than 1.9 million displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the recent conflict began in October last year.
Those remaining in the bombarded territory face deteriorating conditions with limited access to basic supplies and temporary housing. The southern border of Rafah has also been closed since May, meaning many are unable to leave Gaza without the permission of both Israeli and Egyptian authorities.
In a 92-10 vote on Monday, the Knesset banned the agency and declared it a terror group after earlier claims that some Unrwa staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks that led to the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of hundreds more.
Since then, Israel’s military response in Gaza has led to the deaths of more than 43,000 Palestinians and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
The UN investigated the allegations against Unrwa and fired nine Unrwa staff as a result. The claims also led Australia to join the UK and EU in briefly stopping funding to Unrwa.
Shorten told ABC on Tuesday it was incumbent on Israel to ensure it was prioritising helpless civilians after its decision to sanction Gaza’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance.
“I’m aware that there were some employees of Unrwa who were connected to Hamas, but what you’ve got is … hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and they’re the ones who are suffering, and they’re the ones who we’ve got to prioritise,” Shorten said.
“And if that’s the case … the international community has got to put to Israel that you’ve got to look after the civilians. You’ve got to try and help them. It’s not their fault.”
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said Australia had joined with Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK to stop the Knesset from giving the legislation the green light.
On Tuesday, Wong said Unrwa did “life-saving work” while urging Israel to “comply with the binding orders of the ICJ to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance at scale in Gaza”.
after newsletter promotion
In July, the UN’s international court of justice ordered Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible” and make full reparations for its “internationally wrongful acts” in an advisory opinion that declares the occupation violates international law.
Shortly after, Australia imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israelis and a youth group for their involvement in violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The independent ACT senator David Pocock said on Tuesday it was time to extend targeted sanctions against officials within the Israeli government and its armed forces as “one of the only levers available to us” to intervene.
Pocock told a press conference the federal government’s failure to do more amounted to a “real failure of moral courage”.
“At some point, countries like Australia [must] say ‘that’s not good enough’, and we can actually make a small stand as a middle power,” he said.
The shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, said the Coalition did not support putting Australian taxpayer dollars at the risk of “falling into terrorist hands”.
“We recognise the needs of innocent civilians in Gaza are great, support increased humanitarian aid reaching civilians and urge Israel to ensure the free flow of aid to innocent civilians, especially in light of these decisions,” Birmingham said.