Australian Senator Demands Sanctions on Israeli Officials Over Gaza Child Deaths
July 3, 2026
Australian Independent Senator David Pocock is demanding immediate, concrete action from the global community following a devastating UN report on the war on children.
“The children of Gaza have become one of its defining legal faultlines.”
Senator Pocock lays bare the horrific, systematic violence targeted at the youngest and most vulnerable population in Gaza. Highlighting a damning United Nations report, Pocock calls out the total failure of international institutions to protect children who are being systematically bombed, starved, and orphaned. He is explicitly demanding that the Australian government and global leaders implement strict economic and diplomatic sanctions against Israeli officials responsible for these egregious violations of international law.
We need arms embargoes and severe sanctions now. Stand with Palestine and demand accountability.
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English Script:
David Pocock: The children of Gaza have not just suffered in the war. They have become one of its defining legal fault lines. We recently saw a report from the UN which found that since the Hamas terror attack on the seventh of October 2023, the Israeli Defense Force has now killed 20,000 Palestinian children and injured 44,000 more. This is indefensible. The report found evidence of attacks on child essential infrastructure like orphanages and schools, the starvation and torture of detained children. It identified really horrifying evidence that IDF soldiers deliberately shot at children’s limbs as some sort of twisted game of target practice. The report found the scale of child deaths is unprecedented, to the point that it is unparalleled across modern conflicts globally. And I think we need to come to terms with what it means in this moment in history to be defined this way, and what action is demanded of middle powers like Australia in response. We have international legal institutions to prevent this kind of catastrophe from continuing to look at the evidence and make a determination. We have the interim findings from the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and multiple reports from the United Nations outlining Israeli governments breaches of international law amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. And as a member of the international community. Australia needs to play our part in upholding international law. We must continue to demand the end of hostilities to enforce the outcomes determined by the ICJ, the ICC, and for further sanctions on Israeli government officials until they meet their obligations. To quote Sharon Bush in the conversation, “under international law, children are supposed to be the most protected people in war.” The children of Gaza have not just suffered in the war. They have become one of its defining legal faultlines. This cannot go on. And I urge the Albanese government to be a middle power that stands up.
