UK, Australia issue joint statement urging ‘immediate cessation’ of Gaza fighting

Britain and Australia issue a joint statement stressing the need for an “immediate cessation of fighting” in Gaza, as diplomatic pressure builds on Israel to ditch a planned ground assault on the southern city of Rafah.

After a meeting of Australian and UK foreign and defense ministers in Adelaide, the allies issue a statement sharing “deep concern at the potentially devastating consequences for the civilian population of an expanded Israeli military operation in Rafah.”

They stress the “urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released.”

Israel has said that Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the Palestinian enclave and insists it cannot dismantle the terror group without launching an operation in the southern Gaza city.

The country’s allies have expressed deep reservations about the plans, however, as more than 1.3 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering in the Rafah area after the IDF issued evacuation warnings from northern Gaza and other areas in the Strip throughout the last five months of its war with Hamas.