Rank-and-file Labor members are urging their leaders to take action against Israel after its war in Gaza was branded an act of genocide against Palestinians.
A United Nations inquiry cited the targeting of civilians, blocking access to food and water and killings in “far larger numbers compared to previous conflicts”.
Israel denies it’s committing genocide, causing starvation or deliberately targeting civilians.
Australia’s government is also yet to accept the headline conclusion of genocide, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong stopping short of that finding and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yet to comment while on a three-day visit to Papua New Guinea.
Labor Friends of Palestine spokesperson Peter Moss said the report confirmed the verdict of genocide that had been widely accepted by human rights experts and international aid organisations.
“This should be the trigger for Australia to work with other UN member states to impose comprehensive sanctions and an arms embargo under international law,” he told AAP.
Mr Moss said the report also “vindicates the strongly held views of rank-and-file Labor members” with more than 100 party branches passing motions calling for sanctions against Israel.
International law expert Don Rothwell said Australia had an obligation to use all means available to prevent genocide in the strip.
“So the answer for Australia as a party to the genocide convention is ‘yes’,” he told AAP when asked if the nation had any responsibilities following the report’s release.
Following the report, Senator Wong again condemned Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians seeking food and water and declared “the Netanyahu government is more isolated than ever”.
“Australia and the international community have been clear, long before this report, that the situation in Gaza had gone beyond the world’s worst fears,” she said in a statement.
“Israel will be judged by the International Court of Justice on its compliance with the genocide convention.
“We reiterate our demand on the Netanyahu government to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, and to stop undermining a two-state solution.”
The foreign minister also reiterated Australia’s unequivocal condemnation of the designated terror group Hamas.
She called for the release of the remaining hostages it took during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when 1200 people were killed.
Leaders from 20 major aid agencies have decried an unprecedented humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel is throttling aid and supplies as the official death toll tallied by the local health ministry nears 65,000.
Hundreds of people have died from starvation and malnutrition in the strip as Israel presses ahead this week with a new offensive.
Save the Children Australia international programs director Francis Woods said the organisation needed to distribute nutritional supplements to staff to prevent their children from starving.
Mr Woods, who has worked in the field for two decades across South Sudan, Kenya, Haiti, Yemen and Libya, said he had “never witnessed anything like what is happening in Gaza”.
“This isn’t collateral damage from conflict, this is a deliberately engineered humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said Israel had a right to defend itself but must comply with international law.
“The UN should be clear-eyed about who is responsible for prolonging the suffering – Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation, that still holds Israeli hostages and continues to use civilians as human shields,” she said in a statement.
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