A volunteer doctor has shared the heartbreaking choices he has made trying to save lives as bodies flooded hospitals in Gaza, in a push for the Australian government to do more to help Palestinians.
Dr Mohammed Mustafa detailed some of the horrors he saw on two missions in the war-torn occupied Palestinian territory as he tries to get government support to help build a mobile children’s hospital there.
The Australian-British Palestinian last night told hundreds in Parliament House’s great hall and thousands more watching online that the first time he ever saw “my home, Palestine” was when he arrived to volunteer in June 2024.
Labor’s longest-serving foreign minister, Gareth Evans, echoed the calls for targeted sanctions and suggested the federal recognise Palestinian statehood within weeks.
“By far the strongest message Australia could send would be to announce at next month’s critical UN high-level conference that we are immediately recognising Palestinian statehood: not just as the final outcome of a political settlement but as a way of kick-starting it,” the former minister told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Recognition is ALP policy, and Penny Wong and her colleagues have been wrestling only with the timing – and the timing now is absolutely right.”
