Australia has welcomed the release of further Israeli hostages by Hamas during a pause in hostilities, calling for an enduring peace.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Hamas - which Australia designates a terrorist group - needed to immediately release the some 200 hostages that remained.
"Australia wants to see the immediate release of all hostages and sustained, unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"We have seen important progress, but ultimately we must work towards a just and enduring peace.
"Australia is working with countries that have influence in the region towards this goal."
US President Joe Biden said he hoped the temporary truce could continue for as long as hostages were being released after Hamas freed 17 more people on Monday - including a four-year-old girl.
The four-day truce entered its final day on Monday, with Israel releasing 117 Palestinian prisoners, including 39 teenagers.
Former Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma said he was distressed about the loss of life on both sides.
While he had consistently been advocating for the right to self defence if one country came under attack from a terrorist group, he had also called for the laws of armed conflict to be followed.
"We cannot allow conflicts overseas to be imported into Australia such that we allow groups of Australians to seek to demonise or intimidate or vilify other groups of Australians," he told ABC radio on Monday in reference to anti-Semitism.
"That's the line we've seen crossed here in Australia."
Mr Sharma, who will return to federal politics as a Liberal senator in the coming weeks after being chosen to fill a vacancy, said he believed Israel was acting within international law with the death toll in Gaza reportedly sitting at some 15,000 people, including at least 5000 children.
"The responsibility here is to seek to minimise the loss of civilian life. War is a terrible thing and ultimately when wars happen, civilians lose their life," he said.
"That's one of the terrible consequences. That's why parties like Hamas should not go and provoke an attack."
Using international humanitarian law to balance the killing of so many Palestinians against the military objective of destroying Hamas was a "crude calculation ... but that is how the law of armed conflict works", he said.
"People might not be happy hearing that.
"That's the same laws and rules that we apply to ourselves. I want the same standard to be applied to Israel as I would expect to be applied to Australia or the United States or Canada or the United Kingdom."
