The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the peak nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty con­demns in the strongest terms the pre­med­i­tat­ed, unpro­voked attack from the air and on the ground on sov­er­eign Israeli ter­ri­to­ry by Hamas ter­ror­ists. In addi­tion to a mas­sive rock­et bar­rage tar­get­ing Israel’s met­ro­pol­i­tan areas, Hamas forces have infil­trat­ed into Israel with the clear aim of mur­der­ing civil­ians and tak­ing hostages. At present, there are 6 con­firmed fatal­i­ties and dozens seri­ous­ly wound­ed amid reports of atroc­i­ties includ­ing shoot­ings of civil­ians and abduc­tions.

These acts con­sti­tute egre­gious war crimes in their tar­get­ing of civil­ians and are an armed attack against a sov­er­eign state. We expect the State of Israel to take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to defend itself and to defeat the ter­ror forces of Hamas and restore peace for Israel’s cit­i­zens.

We call upon the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment to con­demn with­out equiv­o­ca­tion these fla­grant crimes. Any calls for de-esca­la­tion by “both sides” or attempts to draw equiv­a­lences between the crimes of a ter­ror­ist organ­i­sa­tion and the defen­sive mea­sures of a sov­er­eign and demo­c­ra­t­ic state are mis­con­ceived and only play into the hands of the ter­ror­ists.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the peo­ple of Israel at this time.