The Prime Minister was met with hostility at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland as pro-Palestine protesters confronted him with signs and chants.

As Christopher Luxon walked around taking in the festivities today, about 50 protesters followed behind bearing signs reading “there is no pride in genocide”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Big Gay Out today, where he was met with hostility.

In video footage of the incident, protesters can be heard yelling “blood on your hands” as Luxon refuses to engage with them.

Last week, Luxon said the Government was extremely concerned about Israel’s actions in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza and had conveyed its position to Israel - that its operation there should not proceed.

He said Israel had moral and legal obligations to uphold, comments that amount to his strongest remarks on Israel since the war began in October.

Christopher Luxon presents his first State of the Nation speech before attending the Big Gay Out. Photo / Alex Burton

“Palestinian civilians cannot pay the price of Israel trying to defeat Hamas,” he said at his post-Cabinet press conference.

“There are 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah at the moment. We are extremely concerned about that.”

He said Foreign Minister Winston Peters was conveying to the Israelis New Zealand’s position: “That they do not proceed with operations in Rafah.”

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Peters met Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby in the Beehive earlier in the week - although the meeting had been pre-arranged and the ambassador was not “called in” by Peters.

Israel has begun airstrikes on the city despite a plea from US President Joe Biden made in a phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he expressed grave concern over the rising civilian death toll - put at 28,000 by the health ministry in Gaza.

According to Reuters, Netanyahu’s office said it had ordered the military to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it says are deployed there.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu made remarks that were interpreted as defying the International Court of Justice’s power.

“Nobody will stop us — not The Hague [the base of the International Court of Justice], not the [Iranian-led] axis of evil and not anybody else,” Netanyahu said.

“The hypocritical onslaught at The Hague against the state of the Jews that arose from the ashes of the Holocaust ... is a moral low point in the history of nations,” he said.

Gaza’s health ministry has said this week the death toll in the conflict has topped 24,000.

The conflict began after Hamas terrorists entered Israel on October 7, killing 1200 and taking over 200 hostages.