Australians arrive home after escaping Gaza

AUSTRALIANS GAZA ARRIVALS

People embrace and speak to the media as Australian citizens and permanent residents arrive after fleeing war-torn Gaza at Sydney International Airport. Source: AAP / JEREMY NG/AAPIMAGE

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As more Australians arrive home after weeks trapped in Gaza, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Israel in what he calls a "demonstration of solidarity". Israel has rejected growing international pressure for a ceasefire and says its forces encircling Gaza City have divided the besieged Palestinian region in two. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is continuing his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East as the crisis threatens to spill over into neighbouring Lebanon.


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Twelve more people have been repatriated to Australia from Gaza, landing on a commercial flight in Sydney on Sunday.
 
A family of four landed earlier in Adelaide and a family of three in Melbourne on Saturday.

For this returning couple, it brings an end to a "very scary" few weeks.

"It's been three weeks for us, we [were] living in [a] nightmare, we cannot work, we cannot eat, we cannot just exist. Thanks to the Australian government and Foreign Affairs for helping us, and also to some of the MPs here in the Parliament, they stood behind us for negotiations with Israel, Egypt and everybody so it's much, much appreciated."

The 19 people who have returned so far are among 25 who fled into Egypt from Gaza last week after being allowed through the Rafah crossing.

The federal government says it is still helping 67 people, including Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members, who remain in the besieged territory.

This comes as Hamas' health ministry says the death toll is more than 9,700 including more than 4,000 children, after nearly a month of Israeli bombings following Hamas' October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which Israel says killed more than 1400 people, mainly civilians.

The returnees, who have witnessed firsthand the situation in Gaza, say they hope the Australian government will listen to their message that a ceasefire is desperately needed.

"We hope the ceasefire in Gaza will happen soon, because we just got sick of everybody dying for no reason, people are losing kids, people losing their homes, people are suffering."

But former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is visiting Israel in what he describes as a "demonstration of solidarity" alongside former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, says he does not support a ceasefire.

"In terms of a pause, in our discussions today, there is a willingness to ensure that there's humanitarian support. But do you provide a pause in a ceasefire to allow Hamas to regroup, to get themselves in a position to resist even further? I mean, this is this is the play from Hamas, and we've got to be careful not to be suckered into it."

In the face of tens of thousands turning up to pro-Palestinian protests in their respective countries, both former leaders have defended the Israeli Defence Force's air and ground offensives in Gaza, which the United Nations says have led to 1.5 million people being internally displaced.
 
The World Food Programme has called for urgent safe passage for more aid to reach Gaza, with as little as five days' worth of food left in the region.

Amid growing international pressure for a humanitarian ceasefire, ruled out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unless all of the more than 240 hostages held by Hamas are released, Israel has continued to bomb Gaza.

I-D-F chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also confirmed that an ongoing ground offensive has succeeded in encircling Gaza city, dividing the territory in two.

"Today, IDF forces led by the Golani elite unit surrounded Gaza City, they reached the seashore in the southern part of the city of Gaza City and they surrounded it. Today, there is north Gaza and south Gaza. They reached the coastline, they hold this line.”

Mr Hagari refused to give any details on a reported deadly Israeli drone strike on a village in southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah says has killed three children and their grandmother but says Israel "continued to attack" Lebanese targets on the basis of its intelligence.

The strike has left United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, on a tour of Middle Eastern countries including Jordan, Iraq and Türkiye,
struggling to contain a crisis that threatens to spill over into the wider region.

Mr Blinken also made a surprise visit on Sunday to the West Bank, where more than 140 people have been killed in violence and Israeli raids, rejecting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' calls for a ceasefire.

He says a ceasefire would aid Hamas but believes the Palestinian Authority should play a key role in the future of the region.

"If you project forward to the future, what we all agree is that in defining that future, and shaping that future, for Gaza, for the West Bank, and ultimately for a Palestinian state, Palestinian voices have to be at the centre of that. The Palestinian Authority is the representative of those voices. So, it's important that they play a leading role."

Mr Blinken, whose unannounced visit to Iraq saw people take to the streets of Baghdad in protest, has since arrived in Türkiye hours after pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to storm an air base in Ankara that houses U-S troops.

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