Twenty five countries, including Australia, the UK and France, have demanded an immediate end to the war in Gaza and for Israel to lift aid restrictions. 

The joint statement comes amid growing international concern over the number of deaths at aid sites in the enclave. 

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“We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now,” the foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Denmark and other countries said in a joint statement.

The statement also calls Israeli government’s aid delivery model “dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity”.

“We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region,” it adds. 

The statement also includes condemnation for Hamas’s treatment of hostages held captive since the October 7 2023 attack.

“We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release,” it said.

“A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.”

A man sits on the shoulders of another in the middle of a crowd with his arms out. A damaged building is in the background.

Palestinians have protested against the Israeli aid blockade. (Reuters: Ebrahim Hajjaj)

The statement has been signed by foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

In the statement, the countries say they “strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

It says that if the E1 settlement plan, which has been announced by Israel’s Civil Administration, was implemented, it would divide a Palestinian state in two.

This would mark a “flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution,” the statement added.

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The United Nations says most of those killed had been close to aid sites managed by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The 26 countries went on to urge other members of the international community to “unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire”.

“Further bloodshed serves no purpose. 

“We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this,” it added.

US not part of joint statement

The call for an end to the war and the way Israel delivers aid comes from several countries which are allied with Israel.

It is not signed or supported by Israel’s most important backer, the United States, however it does feature allies of the US.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system.

Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians but Hamas denies the accusation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.

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