Prime Minister Chris Hipkins gave a statement on the situation in Israel, stating the government's 'absolute condemnation' of Hamas' attacks.
Video / NZ Herald
About 200 people gathered in Aotea Square, holding Israel flags and lit candles, last night to mourn those killed, captured and wounded after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack.
Henri Eliot, the Honorary Consul for Israel, who spoke at the vigil, told the Herald he has family hiding in bunkers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem while he prays for them from afar.
“They are seeing people being dragged in the streets, children being murdered in front of their parents, women half-naked in pickup trucks,” he said.
A heavy police presence surrounded the crowd, some of whom cried loudly while others embraced in hugs and held hands.
There was also a sense of anxiety after the ugly scenes in Sydney on Monday night after thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, which was illuminated in blue and white in support of Israel.
People gather for a vigil for Israel in Aotea Square. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Candles spelling out Free Palestine were laid out in front of the Opera House, but video from the event showed protesters also burning Israeli flags, setting off flares and making anti-Semitic chants, including “gas the Jews”.
In Auckland last night, Diana Shaul said she was at the vigil to honour her mother and extended family who are trapped in Israel.
”We can only imagine what’s happening over there from here,” Shaul said.
Image 1 of 10: Many attendees brought candles. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Joshua Sampson’s sister, Hannah, was taking a gap year in Israel when the Hamas’ rockets began to fall and has been able to get a flight out of the country. It was agonising waiting to hear she was safe, Sampson said.
He spoke to the crowd, giving the perspective of a young Jewish man watching the atrocities unfold before him.
There was another vigil last night in Hastings, and others are planned for Wellington and Whangārei.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said Israel has a right to defend itself, but there are international norms in terms of what a proportionate response is, and New Zealand expects those norms to be abided by.
“New Zealand supports a two-state solution, but in terms of this specific conflict, I’m not going to take a day-by-day position on what is happening.”
National leader Christopher Luxon mirrored Hipkin’s comments and said: “We look to continue the long-standing policy that is to see a two-state solution emerge”.
At the Press powerbrokers debate last night, the minor party leaders were also asked to weigh in with their thoughts on the conflict and if the Government should designate the entirety of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
New Zealand has currently designated only the military wing of Hamas a terrorist organisation.
NZ First leader Winston Peters, a former foreign minister, said he wanted more evidence before declaring Hamas a terrorist organisation as New Zealand’s Five Eyes partners have but it “seems where we are going”.
Peters said there had always been agreement across the political divide for a two-state solution but the attack by Hamas had clearly broken the “rules of engagement”.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the loss of life was “absolutely unacceptable” - calling out both Hamas and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
She said all in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank have the “right to security and life”.
Davidson refused to say Hamas should be designated as a terrorist organisation and argued any such designation needed to be applied “equally to all terrorist acts”.
Peters asked: “What does that mean?”
Davidson then accused the IDF of causing “decades of violence”.
“Right now, Winston Peters, there are a million children in Gaza whose city is being flattened and that is unacceptable,” she said.
Peters then accused Green Party members of issuing press statements that were “straight anti-Semitic”.
Te Pāti Māori candidate Tākuta Ferris declined to answer the specific question about Hamas.
NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta's initial response to the Hamas attack on Israel was very tame in comparison to Chris Hipkins. She later fronted up with a matching condemnation. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
Act’s David Seymour said: “Yes, our traditional allies are right, Hamas is a terrorist organisation.”
Seymour has previously criticised Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta, whose statement on the social media platform X said she was “deeply concerned at the outbreak of conflict”. Hipkins later released a strongly-worded statement that New Zealand “condemns unequivocally” the terror attacks led by Hamas.
“New Zealand has stood alone in the worst possible way in the last few days,” Seymour said. “I thought that tweet from Nanaia Mahuta was a real betrayal of the values and New Zealand’s traditional allies.”
He said Hamas’ terrorism has harmed not just Israelis but Palestinians were suffering as well.
