“Israel has never acted in a policy of starvation. There is no such policy. There is no starvation in the Gaza Strip and there is no willingness of Israel that such a thing will happen in the Gaza Strip.”

Anthony Albanese said scenes of starvation in Gaza “break your heart”, singling out a picture of an emaciated one year old boy, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq (pictured) that was widely published around the world last week. Source: Getty / Anadolu /

UNICEF, citing data from the Palestinian Health Ministry, said last week the number of children in Gaza who have died from malnutrition jumped from 52 to 80 — a 54 per cent increase in less than three months.

“This is not the situation that is happening today and we are monitoring very carefully this situation in the Gaza strip.”

Separately, the European Commission has said it had found no reports of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid in Gaza, while the New York Times reported on 26 July, citing at least two Israeli military officials, that the Israeli military never found proof Hamas had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations.

Two year old Yazan Abu Foul with his mother Naima. Yazan suffers from severe malnutrition due to the acute shortage of food caused by the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and the closure of border crossings. Source: EPA / Haitham Emad/EPA

Meron said the actions of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, on October 7 must not be forgotten as people see photos from Gaza.