Australia, New Zealand and Canada on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and asked Israel to respond to the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week determined that Israel’s “occupation of Judea and Samaria” was illegal.
"Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community," the leaders of the three countries said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
"The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas. It must end," they added.
The leaders also said Israel needed to hold “extremist settlers” accountable for of violence against Palestinian Arabs, reverse its “settlement program” in Judea and Samaria, and work towards a two-state solution.
The leaders’ statement called on Israel to "respond substantively" to the ICJ ruling, though the Foreign Ministry had already last week rejected the ICJ opinion as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.
The joint statement, the second since February, expressed concern about escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah and said the risk of a wider regional war made a ceasefire in Gaza all the more urgent.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)