As I write, the Israeli government has in Gaza, at least 70%聽of whom are 聽Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 government has bombed homes, hospitals, mosques, schools and neighbourhoods, at times with white phosphorus, an illegal weapon.
The reported death toll omits those who are missing under the vast landscape that is now made up of broken buildings and broken dreams.
The dead are being stored in ice cream trucks and laid to rest in mass graves. So many of them will never be identified.
Though I now reside in Sydney鈥檚 west, I鈥檝e lived most of my life in Gaza.
My friend Mohammed, who recently wrote to me and our friends, said he hopes we and our families are fine, but said: 鈥淲e are dying鈥 and 鈥淭here is no safe place to go鈥.
Of course nowhere is safe: Israel has ordered Palestinians living in north of Gaza to evacuate to the south, with 24 hours warning. As some made the desperate attempt to relocate, they were bombed.
The forced relocation, the relentless murder of civilians and the targeting of hospitals is just the latest instance of Israel鈥檚 colonial plan; it has been tolerated by Western governments for decades.
Western governments, including Australia, have now granted permission to escalate to an active genocide campaign. Australia鈥檚 silence amid the persecution of Palestinian civilians is deafening.
As we watch United States weapons decimate Gaza, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went so far as to聽聽the 鈥渓eadership President Biden has shown鈥.
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As we watch, Palestinian civilians suffer untold violence; innocent people who have already endured 16 years of siege, occupation and humiliation at the hands of the Israeli government and decades of violence prior to that.
The Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade , in which Israel and a future Palestinian state co-exist in peace and security, with internationally recognised borders.
Australia also about 鈥淚sraeli actions that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution鈥 and urges 鈥淚srael and other actors to respect international law鈥.
What Israel is doing is collective punishment against innocent civilians in Gaza 鈥斅爃alf of whom are children.
These are war crimes. Respect for international law is far gone. The collective punishment of Gazans defies international law, as does the enforced transfer of a population under occupation.
The Australian government is blind to its double standard in supporting Indigenous Australians while, at the same time, supporting an apartheid regime that has killed and dispossessed the original inhabitants of Palestine over the past 75 years.
Over this year alone, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, often by armed settlers from illegal settlements. Five thousand Palestinians languish in Israeli jails, including hundreds of children.
I implore the Anthony Albanese government to publicly condemn the Israeli government, immediately end military ties with Israel and call for an immediate ceasefire on the global stage.
[Shamikh Badra is a Gadi/Sydney resident, originally from Gaza in Palestine. He is a convener of the聽, a PhD candidate at the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, and holds a master鈥檚 degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Sydney. His research examines Palestinian peaceful and diplomatic resistance to the Zionist movement and the creation of the state of Israel.]