Labor to increase humanitarian funding as Penny Wong warns she is ‘gravely concerned’ by Gaza conditions

The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has begun a visit to the Middle East by pledging to nearly double humanitarian funding while saying she is “gravely concerned” by worsening conditions in Gaza.

After talks in Jordan on Tuesday, Wong announced $21.5m in new funding “directed to conflict-affected populations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to address the ongoing regional refugee crisis, with a focus on women and children”.

The package means Australia has now pledged about $46m in humanitarian assistance since October.

More than 24,000 people are reported by the Palestinian authorities to have been killed in Gaza – two-thirds of them women and children – since Israel began its military response to Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel when about 1,200 people were killed.

The Australian government said the additional $21.5m in humanitarian funding included $4m for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to deliver urgent and emergency services and supplies.

It also included $6m for delivery through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) “to provide urgent lifesaving assistance including food, shelter and emergency health care”.

The government said the remaining $11.5m would support refugee programs in Lebanon and Jordan amid increasing regional instability.

Wong said the Australian government was working with international partners “to ensure desperately needed food and other humanitarian assistance reaches those who need it most”.

“Australia is gravely concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza,” Wong said on Tuesday.

“Australia continues to call for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to affected populations, and further humanitarian pauses to enable the scaled up delivery of aid, safe passage for civilians and the release of hostages.”

Wong made the announcement after meeting on Tuesday with Jordan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, who has increasingly sounded the alarm about the impact of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

A day before the meeting with Wong, Safadi said the war would “not bring security to Israel” and it “threatens the security of the entire region”.

Jordan has also voiced support for South Africa’s decision to bring a case before the international court of justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel has breached the genocide convention.

The Australian government has refused to state a position on the genocide allegations.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Monday court cases – such as the ICJ action – would not achieve peace between Israel and Palestine and his government was focused on the “main game” of “a political solution”.

The Israeli government has called the allegations a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation” of the ICJ and urged the court to reject it.

In a joint news conference with Safadi on Tuesday, Wong said Australia respected the “critical role” the ICJ played in upholding the rules-based order. But she said this did not mean that Australia accepted the premise of South Africa’s case against Israel.

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Wong declined to speculate on whether Australia would take a tougher stand on Israel if the ICJ issued binding “provisional measures” in the coming weeks.

“Obviously people have different views about the case,” she said. “We do, however, respect the ICJ and its independence and Australia has a longstanding position of support for and respect for international law.”

At the same news conference, Safadi said the legal system was created so that countries or individuals could seek justice.

“I do not really see why Israel has a problem with South Africa going to the court,” Safadi said. “The court will examine the case [and] will issue the judgment. That is what courts are for.

“Those who do not want to go to courts … are usually those who have something to hide, who do not want to face justice.”

Jordan was the first stop on Wong’s visit to the region, with the foreign minister due to fly to Israel late on Tuesday.

She plans to meet survivors of the 7 October Hamas attack and relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Wong will also travel to the occupied West Bank and meet with communities affected by Israeli settler violence. She will wrap up the trip with a visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The Australian Council for International Development, a group representing the aid and humanitarian sector, urged Wong to use the visit to “push for a permanent ceasefire and for immediate humanitarian access”.

The council said the human toll of the conflict was “staggering” with 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population of Gaza, displaced.

“Australia might be far from the conflict zone, but our voice carries weight,” the council’s acting chief executive, Jessica Mackenzie, said.

“We hope that Australia calls for an unequivocal ceasefire. Doing so would prevent further needless civilian deaths in Gaza.”