Hamas must release hostages before 'dialogue around ceasefire' - NZ Jewish Council

A spokesperson for the NZ Jewish Council says there can be no ceasefire in Gaza before more than 200 hostages taken from Israel are released.

The BBC has reported that Hamas took an estimated 240 people hostage during their 7 October attacks, which killed 1200 Israelis. So far four people have been freed - a mother and daughter, who are US nationals, and two elderly Israeli women.

At the weekend, Chris Hipkins called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict. He said he was doing so in his capacity as Labour Party leader, not caretaker prime minister.

Incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon said Labour's calls for a ceasefire were unhelpful and conditions must be met for a ceasefire to work.

"I think that was unhelpful, I mean we've had a very strong tradition of bipartisanship on foreign affairs. I have to say I think the relationship between the incoming and outgoing government has been very constructive, and in New Zealand's broader interests.

"We would all love to see hostilities cease in the Middle East, we all want to see that, all New Zealanders are all horrified by the images that we're seeing on our TVs. But the reality is you need the conditions for a ceasefire to be there, and that requires that you have both parties wanting to progress a ceasefire, hostilities have to then stop across the whole of the territory, and thirdly you need a real clear pathway into a peace process because military action is not going to restore peace in the Middle East.

"So what we mean by that is that actually yes we want to support steps to a ceasefire but you've got to have the conditions there for that to be able to be met.

"In our case the issue was raised with us on Friday night, we asked the government to go get some formal advice from MFAT [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade], we gave our input into that and then five minutes before, yesterday, we were informed of the announcement that was coming.

"What I'd say to you is that we want to make sure we do that in a bipartisan way, and I hope that we can continue to do that, just a bit disappointed about how it went down."

The National Party had asked MFAT for advice leading to a reconsideration on its position, subject to certain conditions being met, such as the release of the Israeli hostages and a five-day ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Ben Kepes told Morning Report no one would disagree with the idea of a ceasefire in theory, but there already was a ceasefire in Israel before Hamas gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns on 7 October.

"At that point, Hamas went into Israel and brutally murdered and raped and tortured people and took hostages. It's very clear that the actions on 7 October were war crimes," he said.

They are not obeying international law, he added, by refusing to allow medical personnel to get in and treat hostages.

"Let's get the 240-odd hostages back, then some dialogue can happen around a ceasefire."

Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments since then, including at least 5500 children, Reuters reports.

"It's absolutely tragic that Hamas continue to site their military bases in hospitals ... A ceasefire would need to include a real strong international observation to make sure Hamas was not continuing to do that."

Hamas' activities were "unlawful and immoral", he said.

"It's easy for politicians to write a statement calling for something or other ... but it's how you get there that's the problem.

"It's hard to see that if 200 people from Auckland had been taken hostage whether Hipkins would be calling for a ceasefire before [they were] returned.

"How do you negotiate a ceasefire with a party that has already stated it is going to go back and do the same thing again and again until it is destroyed?"

Meanwhile, the Federation of Islamic Associations said it was pleased that Hipkins had called for a ceasefire.

The Federation sent a letter to Hipkins and incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon last week, asking for stronger action to condemn the violence in Gaza.

Its spokesperson, Abdur Razzaq, told Morning Report it had asked for the cessation of hostilities, for Israel's ambassador to be expelled from New Zealand, and sanctions against Israeli software used by government departments such as MBIE.

"At the end of the day what we are talking about a situation that has absolutely gone out of control ... The level of barbarism and civilians deaths ... is horrendous.

"Even countries usually allied to Israel like France came out two weeks ago [condemning the bombing of Gaza], but New Zealand was quite slow in that."

The association wanted Luxon to call for a ceasefire too, Razzaq said.

"When the Russians started bombing Mariupol and killing civilians and children, he said let's evict the Russia ambassador, so we want Luxon to be consistent."

Razzaq said it was good that Luxon had taken the advice of MFAT officials, and in the past had been at the forefront of peacemaking, for example leading a fact-finding mission for the UN.

He did not directly respond to questions about whether the political wing of Hamas should be labelled a terrorist organisation.

"Any civilian deaths by anybody are reprehensible, but as the UN said, we've got to look at the underlying causes."

The association was calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes committed by Israel's government.

"Let's ... look at the detail and prosecute. What has Israel got to hide?

"We know this after 15 March, we must not tolerate this. It's not in anyone's religion to kill civilians."

Editorial note: Some quotes that had been inaccurately transcribed have been amended.