In astatement released in February,the group of leaders warned Israel against launching a ground operation in Gaza.

This followed the group’s first contributionin December in which they said they supported “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire” and backed Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law.

Netanyahu this weekaddressed a joint-sitting of the United States Congress where he portrayed the war as a “clash between barbarism and civilisation”,labelled anti-Israel protesters as “Iran’s useful idiots” and called on the US to fast-track military weapons so his defence force could “finish the job faster”.

Netanyahu was invited to address the congress by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. The speech led to thousands of protesters marching towards the US Capitol,with some pepper-sprayed by police for breaching police lines,and others later burning the American flag at nearby Union Station.

On Thursday (US time),Netanyahu met with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,with the vice president imploring the Israeli leader to accept a ceasefire deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza and release hostages.

Netanyahu’s speech followed theIsraeli army’s strike on several Houthi targets in western Yemen after a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv which killed one person and wounded at least ten more.

The Israeli strikes last Sunday (AEST) appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October,and they threatened to open a new front in the region as Israel battles proxies of Iran.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah,a Houthi stronghold,the Israeli army said,adding that its attack was “in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the state of Israel in recent months.”

The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah,most of them with severe burns.

Israel’s months-long bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians since October,according to the local health ministry.

Almost 90 per cent of Gazans,about 1.9 million people,have been displaced while 495,000 are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

The campaign was a response to Hamas’s October 7 attack,when the group killed 1200 people and took more than 200 hostages,according to the Israeli government.

In the statement released on Friday,Albanese,Luxon and Trudeau called on Israel to “respond substantively to the ICJ’s advisory opinion,and ensure accountability for ongoing acts of violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers,reverse the record expansion of settlements in the West Bank which are illegal under international law,and work towards a two-state solution”.

​“We are gravely concerned about the prospect of further escalation across the region. We condemn Iran’s attack against Israel of April 13-14,call on Iran to refrain from further destabilising actions in the Middle East,and demand that Iran and its affiliated groups,including Hezballah,cease their attacks. We also condemn the Houthis’ ongoing reckless acts,including their indiscriminate drone attack in Tel Aviv and ongoing attacks on international shipping.”

Further hostilities risked putting tens of thousands of civilian lives in both Lebanon and Israel at risk,the leaders said.

The president of the Zionist Federation of Australia,Jeremy Liebler,said:“The government cannot have it both ways. It cannot simultaneously call for the dismantling of Hamas and demand that Israel unilaterally end the war in Gaza – thereby leaving Hamas in power and able to deliver on its promise to commit another ‘7 October’ attack on Israel.

“They are fundamentally incompatible demands. Hamas started this war,and is the reason it has not ended. The war would end tomorrow with the release of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas. Applying pressure on Israel to end the war unilaterally only serves to embolden Hamas and prolong the war.”

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world.Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.