Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday that people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from starvation and loss of life, which is "completely unacceptable".
Albanese expressed concerns about the situation in Gaza and said Israeli actions are not "defensible".
"Israel made the announcement in March that they would put restrictions on the flow of aid and we're seeing the consequences of that. We have a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza," he told ABC.
Asked if the deliberate starvation by Israel is a war crime, Albanese said, "It's certainly not something that's consistent with international law."
"We have a circumstance where people can see it on their TVs every night, in spite of the restrictions that are there on the media entry into Gaza, people are witnessing people who not only are suffering enormously, and starvation and loss of life – but we're also seeing people killed while trying to get access to food and water. Now, in 2025, that's completely unacceptable," he added.
Albanese said Tuesday that Israeli actions in Gaza are producing the same results – loss of innocent lives, destitution and violence, which is "completely unacceptable".
The prime minister announced Monday that Australia would recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September.
Israel has faced mounting criticism over its 22-month-old war on Gaza, which is home to more than two million Palestinians.
Humanitarian groups as well as UN agencies have sounded the alarm on the risk of widespread famine, particularly since Israel had imposed a complete aid blockade for more than two months.
The UN’s World Health Organisation says that 148 people have died of malnutrition since January 2025, and the World Food Programme said in August that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the start of the war.
The WFP said "more than a third of the population is not eating for days at a time" and 300,000 children are at severe risk of malnutrition, with the situation worsening as not enough trucks of aid are allowed into Gaza.
