TRANSCRIPT:
"Israel is not listening to the words. And I think increasingly the international community will need to take a harder line on this. Words will not cut it. Actions will need to be brought to bear here."
That's Labor frontbencher Ed Husic speaking with the ABC.
Joining in the international condemnation of Israel following its attack on a school in Gaza City which has killed at least 90 people.
The Israeli Defence force has said it was targeting 19 Hamas militants that had been operating at the school compound.
But Husic says words will no longer cut it.
"The issue of me giving a message to Israel is that it will be treated as all the messages that have been sent to Israel over the course of this military action in Gaza. All of those messages have been ignored. And fundamentally, what we saw happen at this school, it reinforces my deep concern that I've expressed a number of times, an inability to be able to discern between civilian and combatant, where the value of civilian life is underrated."
Australia imposed sanctions on seven Israeli settlers and religious youth group Hilltop Youth for the first time last month, after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory were illegal.
Mr Husic believes additional sanctions should be considered.
"We should remain open minded on the issue of further sanctions. We've announced some, we should potentially announce more. Dealing with Hamas, yes, is absolutely critical and important, but innocent Palestinians have been killed in their 10s of 1000s through this and ultimately, the Israeli government and the IDF are accountable for that, and that accountability will either happen now or it'll happen down the track with further I would imagine war crimes investigations that will no doubt be conducted. Terrorists should be held to account, but war criminals should be held to account as well, frankly."
Greens leader Adam Bandt has also called for more action.
"People want Labor to push for peace and actually do something. Enough of the hand wringing words from Labor. It is time for Labor to act and put pressure on the extremist Netanyahu government to stop the invasion."
The minor party has used the parliamentary break to build public pressure on the government on Israel - knocking on 50,000 doors in Victoria, New South Wales, and Western Australia.
And they plan to put forward another motion on the issue soon.
"There are things that we could do right now, including stopping the two way arms trade, recognising Palestine, putting sanctions on the extremist Israeli government that would actually make a difference. We'll be pushing the government this fortnight to act."
The last time the Greens put a motion forward calling for the recognition of Palestinian statehood, Senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to vote in its favour - and then quit the Labor Party.
With tensions remaining high, both politically and in the community, ASIO boss Mike Burgess has warned politicians to be careful with language.
"My message is for everyone in the language they use. I get robust political debate, that's got to continue as a strong part of society but just be careful with your language because, again, inflamed language, inflamed tension, leads to violence."
Meanwhile, the opposition says it's concerned over the lack of background checks for people entering Australia after fleeing the conflict, after Mr Burgess told Insiders that support for Hamas did not automatically disqualify people from getting a visa.
"Depends on what that looks like. If they're supportive because they want their homeland, if they're giving financial support or material aid, that can be a problem and obviously we take each case on its merits and the context of the information we have before us. If its just rhetorical support and they don't have a ideology or support for a violent extremism ideology, then that's not a problem. If they have a support for that ideology, that will be a problem."
Liberal Senator James Paterson blames the government.
"Now it is not the task of intelligence agency chiefs to set policy. That is the task of politicians and governments. And it seems clear under the Albanese government's watch that they have not asked the Department or our intelligence agencies to make sure that there are no terrorist supporters or sympathisers among the cohort of Palestinians being brought to Australia."
He's called for background checks by the security agency for everyone fleeing the conflict.
"I was astonished by the revelation that it does not appear that every single person coming out of a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation is not being referred to ASIO for a security assessment. Of course, every single one of those people should be referred. With all the problems we've had with social cohesion, with all the problems we've had with antisemitism, how are we going to make that better by bringing in supporters of terrorist organisations to our country?
