ECAJ position paper on the Gaza war.

Distribution of aid to Gaza

The ECAJ supports the unfettered provision of aid to civilians in Gaza and Israel should do everything in its power to get such aid to Gazans. Any prospect of star­va­tion among the civilian pop­u­la­tion and of deaths of civilians from hunger or while seeking aid are abhorrent and tragic, and Israel must work to eliminate that pos­sib­il­ity. It is apparent that all mech­an­isms for the safe and effective provision of aid while the fighting continues have failed for a range of reasons, including sabotage, theft and manip­u­la­tion by Hamas, policies of the UN and UNWRA, restric­tions on the flow of aid by Israel, delays by aid agencies, the absence of a civil admin­is­tra­tion in Gaza and safe con­di­tions to transport aid, mis­cal­cu­la­tions by the UN, aid agencies and the Israeli gov­ern­ment, and the chaotic con­di­tions resulting from years of misrule by Hamas. The aid crisis can therefore only be alle­vi­ated by deliv­er­ing aid at scale and in volume that also removes Hamas’ ability to operate a black market. This crisis cannot be fully resolved without a permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages and the disarming and removal of Hamas from power in Gaza.

Ceasefire

We favour an immediate and permanent ceasefire that includes the immediate release of all hostages, living and dead and the unlimited and safe dis­tri­bu­tion of aid to civilians. We welcome the Israeli government’s accept­ance of the recent inter­na­tion­ally-brokered ceasefire deal and condemn Hamas for again pri­or­it­ising its own interests over the immediate and urgent needs of the people of Gaza by rejecting that deal. We urge the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to publicly call for Hamas to accept the ceasefire proposal. Until then, along with the majority of Israelis, we do not endorse any major expansion of the war, including the military occu­pa­tion of Gaza city.

Permanent end to war

We wish to see a permanent end to the current war and the creation of con­di­tions that ensure that Gaza can never again be used as a base from which to attack or threaten Israel. The end to the war must include the disarming of Hamas and its removal from power, and the estab­lish­ment of a viable civil admin­is­tra­tion to provide competent, stable and peaceful gov­ern­ment in Gaza and the West Bank, in which, as repeatedly acknow­ledged by the Aus­trali­an Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Hamas can have no role.

We oppose any extended Israeli military presence inside Gaza once the war is concluded and reject the notion of annex­a­tion or any future Israeli civilian presence in Gaza. We favour the creation of demil­it­ar­ized buffer zones and such other military defensive measures as are necessary to preclude any pos­sib­il­ity of future attacks or aggres­sion against Israel from Gaza.

Resettlement of Gazans

We reject abso­lutely any permanent forcible dis­lo­ca­tion of Palestini­ans from Gaza. Any temporary relo­ca­tion of civilians, for the purpose of rebuild­ing Gaza’s infra­struc­ture, must be voluntary and arranged by a competent and respons­ible governing admin­is­tra­tion of Gaza.

Settler violence

We reject and abhor any violence carried out by any Israelis living in the West Bank against Palestini­ans. While we note that the over­whelm­ing majority of Israelis living in this area are peaceful, acts of violence against Palestini­ans, places of worship or agri­cul­tur­al lands, whether in pro­voca­tion or retri­bu­tion, are abso­lutely wrong.

We also condemn unequi­voc­ally the inflam­mat­ory acts and words of some Israeli politi­cians, notably MKs Ben Gvir and Smotrich, which serve amongst other things to incite or justify such violence. The ECAJ has pre­vi­ously expressed serious concerns about the character of these indi­vidu­als and their inclusion in the coalition gov­ern­ment.

We condemn also Palestini­an terror attacks in the West Bank against both Israelis and other Palestini­ans. While the number of attacks is generally declining due to effective Israeli security measures, in 2025, there have been an average of 57 terror attacks carried out by Palestini­ans in the West Bank each month.

Palestinian statehood

The ECAJ continues to support a permanent res­ol­u­tion of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict on the basis of the inter­na­tion­ally-endorsed principle of two States for two peoples. The descent of Gaza, following the with­draw­al of all Israeli forces and citizens in 2005, into a terror enclave wholly sub­or­din­ated to the aims and ideology of Hamas, and outside the control of the Palestini­an Authority, demon­strates why Palestini­an sov­er­eignty must be part of a com­pre­hens­ive accord which ensures the security of Israel and the viability of a peaceful Palestini­an state under a single demo­crat­ic gov­ern­ment. For this reason, we abso­lutely oppose recog­nising a Palestini­an state other than as part of a bilateral or mul­ti­lat­er­al set­tle­ment of the conflict. Pro­nounce­ments of Palestini­an statehood by other states or mul­ti­lat­er­al organ­isa­tions are mean­ing­less and do not further the attain­ment of the con­di­tions of statehood set out in the Mon­tevid­eo Con­ven­tion on the Rights and Duties of States, they also do nothing to advance the prospects of peace.

We would expect that as a bare minimum, the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment would require the following con­di­tions to be met prior to its recog­ni­tion of any Palestini­an state: return of all the hostages; disarming of Hamas and its removal from the admin­is­tra­tion of Gaza and any future Palestini­an state; recog­ni­tion by the Palestini­an admin­is­tra­tion of Israel as a Jewish state; adherence by the Palestini­an admin­is­tra­tion to the Oslo accords; demil­it­ar­isa­tion of the Palestini­an state; and demo­crat­ic and economic reform of the Palestini­an admin­is­tra­tion.