There has been a jump in the number of Australians and their family members in Gaza needing assistance from the federal government.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is helping 79 people in the besieged Gaza Strip, up from 67 reported on Sunday.
There have been 25 Australians and family members who have been able to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt.
The Israeli army has surrounded Gaza’s main city as its invasion of the strip in search of Hamas militants continues.
Hamas, which is deemed a terrorist organisation by the Australian government, killed more than 1400 Israelis and took more than 240 hostages in an attack on October 7.
The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s retaliatory strikes, which have hit refugee camps and ambulances, is nearing 10,000, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.
Israel says 31 of its soldiers have been killed.
Tel Aviv’s response has not been proportionate, independent senator David Pocock says, calling the Australian government to be louder in its advocacy for Israel to follow international law.
Federal ministers have consistently called for Israel to act within the confines of international law while reaffirming its right to defend itself.
Every life should be viewed as equal and a humanitarian pause was urgently needed, Senator Pocock said.
“We have to be calling out the atrocities on both sides and urging them to come to some sort of resolution,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
The Australian government’s arms exports to Israel have also come under scrutiny from Palestinian human rights groups, which have launched legal action seeking records of weapons exports granted by Defence Minister Richard Marles.
The Federal Court action by Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights seeks access to any permits allowing the export of arms and weapons to Israel granted by the minister since October 7.
Australian Centre for International Justice, executive director Rawan Arraf, who is a solicitor for the Palestinian groups, said Australia must not be complicit in the violence and any exported arms to Israel must be “exposed”.
There is “credible public information” that Australian goods and technology may be being used to abate genocide specifically against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the groups said in an affidavit seen by AAP.
Australia has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years but such exports weren’t lethal in nature and included items such as radios, body armour, software, vehicle parts and sporting equipment, defence officials have said.
Source: AAP
