Public buildings are legitimate military targets: Israel

“The way Israel exercises its right to defend itself matters,” she said. “It matters to civilians throughout the regions, and it matters to Israel’s ongoing security.

“Innocent Palestinian citizens should not suffer because of the outrages perpetrated by Hamas.”

Senator Wong also joined calls by the United Nations and others for a ceasefire – which she called a humanitarian pause – so aid could be delivered to the besieged territory. The United States used its veto powers in the UN Security Council to block a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Overnight on Tuesday in New York, Israel reacted with outrage when UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the terrorist attacks did not happen in a vacuum but were a consequence of 56 years of occupation.

Israeli Foreign Minster Eli Cohen cancelled a meeting with Mr Guterres in protest while the country’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called for the UN chief to resign immediately and said his comments amounted to “a justification for terrorism and murder”.

Amid reports of almost 6000 Gaza residents killed so far by the reprisal raids, Mr Maimon, while not disputing civilians were dying, cautioned against the casualty figures being cited by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

Mr Maimon noted the same Health Ministry claimed 500 people died in last week’s missile strike on a hospital in Gaza, for which Israel was initially blamed. He said a subsequent investigation by Israel showed the death toll, from what was believed to be a misfired Hamas rocket, to be about 50 dead.

Mr Maimon said the criticism of Israel was unfair, and drew a contrast with the support for the United States in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

“As an Israeli, it’s hard to understand why the world finds it a bit more challenging to stand behind Israel all the way,” he said.

“I don’t recall when the Twin Towers were attacked, that the United States was questioned about their military objectives. Nor about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.”

Mr Maimon said the impact on Israel’s psyche of the October 7 attacks needed to be understood.

“The horrific acts of October seventh awakened feelings of helplessness and fear in the collective memory of Jews, emotions that evoke the trauma of the Holocaust,” he said.

“In the consciousness of the Jewish people, the names of places such as Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Re’im will be forever tainted with the same horrors as Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

“We did not start this war, nor did we seek it, but it is a war that we are determined to win. We are fighting for our home. For our right to live.”

He agreed the Hamas attacks represented a massive intelligence failure by Israel and that there would have to be a full commission of inquiry once hostilities ceased.