Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, Israeli air strikes hit the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, which is one of the last remaining lifelines for besieged Palestinians, who've been slaughtered in the tens of thousands and starved to death in the nearly two years since the genocide in Palestine began. And then, just moments later, that hospital was hit again. This is known as a double tap. It is deliberately designed to take out journalists who go to cover these atrocities and to take out medical responders who go to try and save people who were hit in the first strike. This is absolutely a war crime, and Israel has to be held to account for this. More broadly, we've had the first ever famine declared in that part of the world. This is not a famine caused by crop failures or changes in weather patterns; this is a famine caused by the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Again, this is a war crime, and the Israeli government has to be held to account, and Australia needs to act. We need to end our complicity in the genocide, complicity caused by our export of weapons components that are being used in the very air strikes I've just spoken about. We need to sanction Mr Netanyahu and his cabinet of war criminals. We need to end the two-way weapons trade with Israel, and we need to get serious about taking on international leadership. What is going on in Gaza right now is a humanitarian calamity. End the genocide. Free Palestine, for true self-determination for the Palestinian people. (Time expired)