PM joins leaders in condemning Israel's planned invasion of Rafah

Albanese issued a joint statement with counterparts Justin Trudeau and Christopher Luxon today urging Israel to refrain from launching the military action.

Around 1.5 million Palestinians have been taking refuge in the area.

In the joint statement, the leaders called the planned operation “catastrophic”.

“We are gravely concerned by indications that Israel is planning a ground offensive into Rafah,” the statement read.

“With the humanitarian situation in Gaza already dire, the impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating.

“We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path, there is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced the military strategy.

Israel has claimed that Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza after more than four months of war.

Rafah had a prewar population of roughly 280,000, and according to the United Nations is now home to people living with relatives, in shelters or in sprawling tent camps after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.

In today’s statement, the leaders warned of an international fallout.

“There is growing international consensus, Israel must listen to its friends and it must listen to the international community,” the statement read.

“The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law.

“Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.”

More than 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died since the beginning of the war, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

Netanyahu has said that disarming the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah is crucial to Israel’s aim of defeating the listed terrorist group, which launched a shock attack on Israel on October 7.