Strikes on Damascus aimed at deterring Syrian military from ‘massacring Druze population'
'Why don't people criticise the Syrian military and the Syrian President for killing Druze?' Mr Downer told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
'There are a lot of Druze in Israel, about 150,000 Israeli Druze, and many of them are in the Israeli defence force … they're completely integrated … into Israeli society.
'The Israelis are stopping the Syrian military from massacring the Druze in Syria, and to criticise the Israelis for doing that, that pretty much boils down to antisemitism.'
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7NEWS
2 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Trump says main priority in Gaza is getting people fed, brings forward Ukraine deadline
US President Donald Trump says the number one priority in the Gaza Strip is getting people fed, because 'you have a lot of starving people,' adding that he was not going to take a position on Palestinian statehood at the moment. Trump, speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland, said the United States had provided $US60 million ($92 million) for humanitarian aid and other countries would have to step up. He said he discussed the issue with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, and she told him European countries would step up their assistance very substantially. He said he also planned to discuss the humanitarian situation with Starmer during his visit on Monday. 'We're giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up,' Trump said. 'It's a mess. They have to get food and safety right now.' Starmer agreed, saying: 'It's a humanitarian crisis, right? It's an absolute catastrophe .... I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they're seeing on their screen.' Trump said he would not comment on a push by French President Emmanuel Macron to back Palestinian statehood. Trump also criticised the Hamas militant group for not agreeing to release more hostages, living and dead, and said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel's approach would likely have to change. 'I told Bibi that you have to maybe do it a different way,' Trump said, echoing similar comments made on Sunday. Asked if a ceasefire was still possible, Trump said, 'Yeah, a ceasefire is possible but you have to get it, you have to end it.' He did not elaborate on what he meant. Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinian group had changed its position and was refusing to release more hostages. Hamas has said it is willing to release hostages under a ceasefire agreement with Israel. It submitted its response to a US-backed ceasefire proposal on Thursday at talks in Doha. Hours later, Israel withdrew its delegation from the talks. On Sunday, Trump said Israel would have to make a decision on next steps, adding, 'I know what I'd do but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it'. Israel carried out an air drop and announced a series of measures over the weekend to improve access for aid, including daily humanitarian pauses in three areas of the Gaza Strip and new safe corridors for convoys. United Nations agencies say those moves are not yet sufficient to alleviate famine-like conditions facing the enclave's residents. On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war's death toll from hunger to 147, including 89 children, most in just the last few weeks. Israel cut off all supplies to the Gaza Strip from the start of March, reopening the territory with new restrictions in May. Israel says it abides by international law but must prevent aid from being diverted by militants, and blames Hamas for the suffering of the Gaza Strip's people. 'Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bald-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' Netanyahu said on Sunday. Trump brings forward deadline for Russia on Ukraine war Trump also said he is setting a new 10 or 12-day deadline for Russia over its war in Ukraine, underscoring his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for prolonging fighting between the two sides. Trump has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made, and said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month. 'I'm going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today,' Trump said during the same meeting with Starmer. 'There's no reason in waiting ... We just don't see any progress being made.' The US president has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for continuing attacks on Ukraine despite US efforts to end the war. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump, who views himself as a peacemaker, had promised to end the three-and-a-half-year conflict within 24 hours. 'I'm disappointed in President Putin,' Trump said on Monday. 'I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what's going to happen.' There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. But the president, who has also expressed annoyance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has not always followed up on his tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously. 'We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,' Trump said. 'And I say that's not the way to do it.'
The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
Israel Gaza war: Penny Wong, Anthony Albanese and rising calls for humanitarian aid to Gazans
Just two months ago, the United Nations warned: 'Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five faces starvation.' And we know many have been shot by Israeli soldiers while trying to get food. At the weekend, Israel announced it would take steps to restore aid. Sadly, by this stage it is difficult to know with what level of credulity to treat its government's assertions. Israel has long blamed Hamas for looting aid; on Sunday, The New York Times carried a report based on conversations with Israeli military officials: 'the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations … In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the UN aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza's desperate and hungry population.' This backed reports of a recent American analysis with similar findings. The starvation of the people of Gaza, then, is not an accident; it is not a tragic byproduct of other actions. As de Waal wrote years ago, 'starve' should not be seen as a passive verb. It is something someone does to someone else. And, it follows, something that others permit to be done. Almost a year ago, one Israeli minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: 'No one will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though that might be just and moral until they return the hostages.' He was wrong. Loading Wong's early call for restraint in Gaza tells us several things. It shows it was possible, at the very beginning, to glimpse some of what was coming. At the same time, Wong's early defensiveness shows how easily participants in public debate – including leading politicians – are able to be knocked off course by efforts to make certain statements unsayable. The conservative press is significant in these efforts; but the rest of the political class, politicians and media, are the ones who allow themselves to be cowed. Israel has achieved as much as it ever will from this war. In the doing, thousands more Palestinians have been killed. Together, these two facts mean that more things are now able to be said. But the moral and practical test for those with influence has shifted. Loading Of course, it's true that Australia can't by itself end the fighting. And it is hard to know what will make Netanyahu listen – or make America behave differently. And it is true, too, that statements can have some effect. The last time famine threatened in Gaza, international pressure led to an increase in aid. Obviously, though, this was only temporary. And that is why it is important to recognise that other options are available to Australia. The UK has now announced it is working with Jordan to deliver aid and will medically evacuate children. France has said it will recognise Palestine as a state, something former Labor ministers Gareth Evans, Bob Carr and Ed Husic are calling for here. On Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made clear that Israel has breached international law. This was a welcome injection of clarity. Still, the test at this late stage is no longer whether politicians can issue damning statements. The only meaningful test left is whether our leaders will do everything they can to stop Netanyahu's Israel from killing any more Palestinians.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘False campaign': Israel insists there is no starvation in Gaza
Meron said that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and launched the shock October 7 attacks on Israel that led to an estimated 1200 deaths, was 'deceiving the media, deceiving international organisations, the international community, and it is deceiving its own people'. Referring to images of emaciated Palestinian children that have shocked people around the world, including Albanese, Meron said: 'The picture that you see, we think these are false pictures.' Meron said food shortages in Gaza should be blamed on a lack of willingness by international aid organisations to deliver the aid and the theft of food and other supplies by Hamas militants. He said the new measures announced by Israel, including pauses in the fighting, were 'of course to tackle this false campaign that Hamas is running against Israel, the starvation campaign'. 'When the UN agencies are saying that there is no aid, we're showing those pictures [and saying] look, there is aid, and it's ready, and it's you can take it now and bring it to the Gaza Strip into the population. Why aren't you taking it?' he said. The deputy ambassador's comments echoed those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Monday, who told the UN and other aid organisations: 'Stop finding excuses, do what you have to do and stop accusing Israel deliberately of this egregious falsehood. There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza.' Netanyahu has been charged by the International Criminal Court with using starvation as a weapon of war, a claim his office dismissed as false and antisemitic. After French President Emmanuel Macron urged world leaders to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly last week, Labor MP Basem Abdo used his first speech to parliament on Monday to subtly support Australian recognition of Palestine. Abdo, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugees, described Palestinians as a 'suffering people, a steadfast people', adding that 'international law matters, the international rules-based order matters'. 'The right to peace, justice and recognition matters – deserving of a historic commitment,' he said. More than 100 international aid organisations issued a joint statement last week saying 'mass starvation' was spreading across Gaza, and that 'our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away'. According to the WHO, there have been 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this year, with 63 occurring in July – including 24 children under five. 'Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting,' the WHO said in an update on Sunday. The Australian government last week joined 27 nations to condemn 'the drip-feeding of aid' by Israel, while Albanese said on Sunday that 'quite clearly, it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March'. Pressed on whether Albanese was wrong to say that Israel broke international law by halting all aid deliveries from March until May, Meron said: 'What we're saying is that Israel doesn't breach ... international humanitarian law in Gaza. 'There is enough aid in Gaza, and we are acting in different ways in order to bring more aid in Gaza. 'And the responsibility should be [placed] on Hamas, not on Israel.' Albanese told parliament on Monday that Gaza is in 'the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe' and that 'Israel's denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children seeking access to water and food, cannot be defended nor can it be ignored'. 'We have called upon Israel to comply immediately with its obligations under international law,' he said, adding that he also condemned Hamas. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley told Sky News: 'I find the images incredibly distressing and the stories of aid not reaching the people where it's needed incredibly distressing.' Loading Asked about Meron's comments regarding 'false pictures', she said: 'It's clearly a very complicated situation on the ground.' The war could end immediately if Hamas agreed to surrender and release all the remaining hostages, Ley added. Liberal Senator Dave Sharma said there was 'pretty overwhelming' evidence of malnutrition and food shortages in Gaza but told the ABC: 'I don't believe Israel has stopped food from being delivered, or at least my understanding is that has not been the policy intent.' According to the UN human rights office, more than 1000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food aid over the past two months, including more than 700 near one of the distribution centres run by the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
