Chris Bishop and Christopher Luxon. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"I acknowledge for our Jewish and Muslim communities it's a difficult time" - National leader Christopher Luxon
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has spoken to MP Chris Bishop over a strongly worded email the MP sent about the Gaza conflict.
In the email, Bishop - ranked third in the National Party caucus, behind Luxon and Nicola Willis - wrote about the horrific actions of Hamas, and said such barbarity had not been seen since the Holocaust.
The email was widely shared on social media.
Luxon told Morning Report the language used was "strong" and it showed there were high emotions on both sides.
"Yeah, look, I spoke to him, I thought is was strong language, it's also representative of strong emotions on all sides of this debate.
"I acknowledge for our Jewish and Muslim communities it's incredibly difficult time ... New Zealand has been consistent in condemning the attacks, in supporting the right of Israel to defend itself, and humanitarian needs [being] a priority.
"It is a tragic tragic set of circumstances that is playing out and that is the way we need to move through it."
National and the outgoing Labour government had both been calling for a humanitarian truce to allow aid into Gaza as the death toll topped 8000 people.
Luxon supported New Zealand's recent vote at the United Nations on the truce - despite being the only Five Eyes partner who voted in favour of the resolution.
Luxon would not confirm whether he would go further and call for a ceasefire.
"We condemn Hamas attacks on Israel [as] barbaric... and unprovoked. We do support Israel's right to defend itself but expect all parties to act in accordance with international law and demonstrate basic humanity."
He said that in reality, parties on the ground "don't want a ceasefire at the moment" - but said it wasn't for him to determine whether Israel was acting under international law, or whether its response was collective punishment.
"Those are determinations for [the International Criminal Court] and others to make, but all we're saying is we expect all parties to be acting in accordance with international law and to demonstrate basic humanity. But we do also support Israel's right to defend itself and Hamas' attacks were unacceptable, barbaric and terrorist acts.
"We do believe that starting the Middle East peace process is what's needed in this region, and no military action will secure that.
"What we have called for is a humanitarian truce so that we can get assistance and aid in to help innocent civilians, that's exactly what we need right now."
University of Waikato international law expert Al Gillespie told RNZ comments like Bishop's were not helpful in the situation.
"Because they're opinions, and feelings are running very strong and it's important for government ministers to be as neutral as they can and aim to uphold the international rule-based order without a partisan approach to one side or the other."
Gillespie said there was a difference in the language between "ceasefire" and "humanitarian truce", but it was not as big as some are suggesting.
"An immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities - that's not quite a ceasefire but it's a similar type of non-binding pause so that you can get humanitarian assistance into the area ... a ceasefire is more of a binding commitment where there's complete cessation of hostilities for a short-term period.
He said the resolution New Zealand voted for had compromises in it to try to get it across the line at the UN, with the discussions towards an end to hostilities having now failed four times.
"It's not just the immediate conflict, it's also about the longer-term search for peace and it was correct to support it, but America voted against it because it was partly implied to be calling for a ceasefire."
"Now New Zealand seems to be going back to sort of saying 'well, we're not sure we want a ceasefire either."
"The bigger issue here is even if you get an agreement for a ceasefire at the general assembly, let alone at the security council, it's very very unlikely that Israel would even respond to that and the only country that could potentially stop Israel and force a ceasefire is the United States and they're not willing to do that right now."
He said the practical problem was a pause of some kind would be needed to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
"The academic discussions are important but the reality is that a huge amount of innocent civilians are suffering right now.
"It just kind of distracts from the overall problem of having a population of two million in darkness, who are currently in almost a medieval siege type situation."
"You've got to increase the aid significantly and you've got to ensure that it's safe to deliver but whether you can do that without an effective reduction of the conflict in the area is the question. So I think a number of countries are now getting tied up about whether that's even possible."
Another aspect is whether New Zealand should designate Hamas' political wing as a terrorist organisation. New Zealand has designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation, but - unlike many other countries - not its political wing.
Luxon said he supported outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins' stance - to wait for more advice.
"We will take advice on that from department of foreign affairs ... we're open to considering that and we'll take advice.
"I'm not the prime minister at the moment, we have a caretaker government in place and the government's taken the lead on that but the prime minister's asked for that advice as I understand it... I want to see the advice as well and we'll make a decision once we've received it."