Key Points
- Government minister Jason Clare has criticised Israel on the Seven Network on Friday morning.
- "It's obvious that Israel is not doing enough to protect the lives of innocent people," Clare said.
- His comments come after Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Government minister Jason Clare has taken aim at Israel, saying it isn't doing enough to protect "innocent people's lives" and that he wants the war "to stop".
His comments came after was killed alongside six other World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers when an Israeli airstrike hit their convoy.
Israel's military commander-in-chief Herzi Halevi said its forces made a grave mistake after misidentifying the convoy during the night and that the strike shouldn't have happened.
President Isaac Herzog apologised on Tuesday, but , instead calling it a "tragic case" that "happens in war".
However, the incident would be investigated "right to the end", Netanyahu added.
The response to World Central Kitchen deaths
"It's obvious that Israel is not doing enough to protect the lives of innocent people," Clare told the Seven Network on Friday morning.
"It's not good enough just to say 'shit happens', that 'this is war', and that 'people are going to die in a war zone.'"
Australia has been handed a report into the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom by the Israeli military.
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the investigation into the strike had been completed, given to the countries of the killed foreigners, and would be made public within 24 hours, he said.
In some of his strongest criticism yet of Israel, .
It came as Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez said Israel's explanation of the attack was "unacceptable and insufficient" — remarks Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he agreed with.
"I want the war to stop," Clare said.
"I want Israel to hear what countries around the world are saying.
"We need the killing to stop now, we need the suffering to stop now., we need the starvation to stop now, we need the hostages returned, and we need to get food and medicine into starving people."
More than 33,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed since Israel declared war on Hamas in retaliation to the when Hamas militants killed over 1,100 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages.
Over 200 of those killed in Gaza have been humanitarian workers, according to the Humanitarian Outcomes' Aid Worker Security Database.
Hope Zomi Frankcom's death could mark 'turning point' in war
A grieving friend of the Australian aid worked killed in Gaza says her death is "devastating" but is hopeful it could mark a "turning point" in the international response to the Hamas-Israel war.
Karuna Bajracharya, who knew Frankcom for about 16 years, believed calls for accountability had ramped up because his friend was an Australian, but said "all lives matter".
"The family wants accountability and justice," he told SBS News. "You shouldn't be able to extinguish a life like this so callously without any kind of repercussion."
Bajracharya added: "As heartbreaking as it is for us, and devastating, if this could be a turning point to get some sort of humanity and justice back into this situation, then I think that's what Zomi would have wanted."
Karuna Bajracharya, one of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom's friends, previously did some work for World Central Kitchen. Source: Supplied
He told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday the vehicles were attacked over a distance of between 1.5 and 1.8 kilometres, which makes it hard to reconcile Israel's explanation that it had misidentified the convoy.
"It was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by everybody at the IDF," Andres later told Israel's Channel 12 news.
'Anger and concern'
Albanese said he expressed Australia's "anger and concern" over Frankcom's death and urged a "thorough" investigation in a phone call with Netanyahu following the strike.
"What isn't good enough are the statements that have been made, including that this is just a product of war," he told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
"This is against humanitarian law."
Bajracharya believed Albanese's rhetoric was at its toughest since the war broke out, but said it was a "crying shame that it had to be our friend who died" for that to happen.
"We demand cessation to the fighting. We demand justice for Zomi. I think we should expel the Israeli ambassador from Australia," he said.
Albanese on Wednesday deflected questions about whether he was considering expelling Israel's ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon.
Maimon has been ill and is yet to meet with government officials since the strike that killed Frankcom and the other WCK workers.
Frankcom died alongside Polish national Damian Sobol; Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; British nationals John Chapman, James Kirby, James Henderson; and dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014, including the recent attacks of both Israel and Hamas.
