مجلة عرب أسترالياـ
Official Statement: Responding to Joint Statement issued 21 July on the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine welcomes the Joint Statement issued by the foreign ministers of 28 countries, including Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, alongside the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, which called for the immediate cessation of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and strongly condemned the continued actions of the Israeli occupation forces in deliberately preventing the entry of humanitarian aid and killing Palestinian civilians.
The Joint Statement conveys the international community’s shock and outrage at the horrific scenes of the occupation forces’ crimes and the killing of Palestinian civilians – especially the more than 995 Palestinian civilians killed while seeking to obtain food and water through what have come to be known as “Death Distribution Centres” rather than “Aid Distribution Centres.” It also reflects the extent of international condemnation of the mass killing of children and civilians as a result of the man-made famine and thirst imposed by Israel on Gaza.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry values this principled collective stance, which reaffirms the urgent need to end the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and its policy of forced displacement, and stop all attempts to undermine the viability of the two-state solution through colonial settlement expansion and annexation attempts in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Today, 22 July 2025, marks the 655th day of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Israel has forcibly displaced almost all of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people and turned the Strip into a death zone where Palestinian civilians are being targeted, killed, injured, starved to death and deprived of the most basic rights, including food, clean water, shelter, safety and education. An average of 28 children are killed every day in Gaza. Without immediate, large-scale humanitarian access, the Gaza Strip risks a catastrophic descent into man-made famine, chaos, and further mass loss of life.
As the occupying Power, Israel bears a legal obligation under international law to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza have access to food, medicine, and other essentials necessary for their survival and human dignity. As United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has warned: “Hunger must never be met with bullets.”
The State of Palestine calls on these countries, and on the international community as a whole, to translate these principled positions into practical and concrete actions to stop the ongoing genocidal war, end the policy of weaponised starvation, and ensure accountability for the grave international crimes committed – including those carried out by the Israeli occupying power and its extremist far-right leaders, as well as its terrorist settler militias in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Ministry also reiterates its call for immediate recognition of the State of Palestine to salvage the two-state solution and regional stability.
As stated by Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa in a press conference yesterday: “The international community must not be complicit through silence, or distracted by geopolitical theatrics. The credibility of the international law-based order hinges on its ability to apply the law universally without exception and without delay.”
For more information, please contact the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.