Julie Bishop’s department has closely monitored the deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces during protests in Gaza in the last month, even predicting causalities before they occurred, while the government has, until today, maintained a public silence on the escalating violence.

Diplomatic cables, obtained by Crikey under freedom of information laws, reveal that the Tel Aviv embassy briefed Canberra last month about the killing of dozens of Palestinian protesters at the Israel-Gaza border while anticipating further causalities.