TRANSCRIPT
Pressure is mounting on the Israeli government to end their almost two-year conflict in Gaza as global outpourings of anger and concern for Palestinians and hostages escalate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with senior security officials to finalise a strategy to end the war, with media reporting he has pushed to escalate the violence in pursuit of a complete military takeover of the occupied Palestinian territory.
The reporting from Israel's Channel 12 also suggests the country’s military chief has been told he should step down if he opposes the move.
Mr Netanyahu has reiterated Israel’s war aims.
HEBREW THEN ENGLISH VO: "It is still necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, to release all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza it will no longer pose a threat to Israel. We are not giving up on any of these tasks. We'll do it through the great sacrifice of our male and female fighters.”
The United Nations has issued a stark warning over the reports of an escalation in Israel's war in Gaza.
Speaking at the Security Council, Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca says such a move, if confirmed, would have devastating consequences.
"The latest reports regarding Prime Minister Netanyahu's possible decision to expand Israel's military operations through the entire Gaza Strip, if true, are deeply alarming. This would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza."
But the U-N is not alone in its criticism of Mr Netanyahu's reported plan to seize all of Gaza.
In a video on social media platform X, former leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, Mossad spy agency and the military along with ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak have accused the government of choosing to hold the country hostage in prolonging the conflict.
Yoram Cohen, former head of Shin Bet, says Mr Netanyahu's objectives in Gaza are a fantasy.
"We paid the price in casualties, in deaths, way too many. Our achievements there are quite limited. Internationally, the damage is severe and we have not advanced in any way regarding the hostages. If anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon and in parallel bring our hostages home, I think it is impossible - a fantasy."
The urgency of ending the war has also been punctuated by the release of footage of two emaciated Israeli hostages.
The videos have outraged the Israeli public and led to protests around the country calling for a ceasefire and a hostage deal.
One of the hostages is Evyatar David and his brother, Ilay David, told the U-N Security Council to use its leverage to secure the immediate release of remaining hostages and to ensure humanitarian aid reaches them.
"My brother was a living skeleton. He had barely the strength to move or speak - his voice barely recognisable. In that video, my little brother was forced to speak to the world and then actively began to dig his own grave inside a filthy, dark tunnel. My mother and I could not even bring ourselves to watch it. We knew that if we did, we would be unable to function. My father and sister, however, felt they had to see him, to hear his voice. Now these images haunt them. My father cannot sleep and my mother has not stopped crying ever since."
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza has now exceeded 61,000 according to local health officials, with the Gaza Health Ministry reporting at least 80 Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli firing.*
As criticism of the Israeli government's supposed plan to end the war grew, United States President Donald Trump has declined to say whether he supported or opposed a potential military takeover of Gaza by Israel and said his administration's focus was on increasing food access.
"Well, I don't know what the suggestion is. I really can't say, that's going to be pretty much up to Israel. I know that we are there now trying to get people fed, as you know, $60 million was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food and a lot of, a lot of food, frankly, for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food. "
Severe hunger and malnutrition has spread like wildfire in Gaza with local medics reporting eight more people have died of starvation or malnutrition in the past 24 hours.
A new survey of 25 displacement sites by the Danish Refugee Council finds that 70 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza are now too weak from starvation to even reach the humanitarian aid being offered.**
But those who can venture out to collect aid from U-S and Israeli-backed aid mechanisms face violence that has put their lives at risk.
Local health authorities say at least 20 people have been killed by Israeli gunfire* as they waited for UN aid trucks in the northern Gaza Strip with 20 people reportedly wounded by Israeli gunfire as they waited to get aid in southern Gaza.
Palestinian mother Amal Al-Mughir says she is stuck between needing to feed her starving children and wanting to avoid being killed herself in the process.
"I am staying in my tent and house, who will get me aid and deliver it to me? We used to get aid through the UN, through WFP, we used to go respectfully to get our supplies and return to feed our children, today we do not have anybody. Sometimes, I think I do not want to go and risk myself with death but we're really dying from hunger. Our children are dying from hunger. When my son wants to eat and I do not find anything to feed him, I am obliged to go to die there in order to get him food but return with nothing."
In Australia, an interfaith coalition of Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups is calling on the federal government to sanction Israel and recognise a Palestinian state.
Their open letter in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald says Israel is committing genocide and Australia must take stronger action.
Dr Raten Jneid signed on behalf of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.
"Sanctions and the recognition of Palestinian state are not radical acts. They are necessary steps to uphold international law and human dignity. They would send a message that Australia is prepared to act on principle, not just words, and that the rights of Palestinians are not negligible."
Dr Julie Macken signed for the Sydney Archdiocese's Peace and Justice Office.
"We all know what it will take to stop it. It will take stop providing Israel with armaments and impose sanctions that send a clear message to the key players here that this is not going to be approved of by the international community. Anything less than that is just performative of peace, and I think the world has had a gutful of performative of peace."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the United Nations General Assembly next month, where Palestinian statehood and the Gaza crisis will top the agenda.
The two leaders spoke overnight, their first call since France declared plans to recognise Palestine at the U-N gathering in September.
A readout from the leaders’ call says they discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and reaffirmed their commitment to getting aid to civilians.
Both also reiterated long-standing support for a two-state solution.
Mr Albanese has said Australia will eventually recognise Palestine, describing it as a matter of when, not if.
