A protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza has taken place in Dublin this afternoon.
Around 800 demonstrators, some of whom were carrying a coffin draped in a Palestinian flag, assembled at the Central Bank on Dame Street to hear speakers criticise Israel’s actions in the current conflict.
Addressing the crowd Richard Boyd Barrett of the Irish Anti-War Movement called on the Government to expel the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland.
Marie Crowley of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said 800 Palestinians had been killed, one third of them children, since the beginning of the recent Israeli offensive.
“The entire population of the Gaza strip is forced to live in what is essentially a concentration camp,” she said.
Ms Crowley said the Palestinian people in Gaza are being bombarded by air, sea and land and called Israel’s campaign a “holocaust” which amounted to the “ethnic-cleansing” of the Palestinian people.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said "the international community has to recognise the democratic mandate of Hamas and open dialogue with them".
Speakers also called on the international community not sell or buy goods from Israel.
The demonstration passed the Dáil before it continued on to the Israeli embassy.
Minister for the Environment and Green Party leader John Gormley told a gathering of his party that people around the world were repelled by Israel’s bombardment.
“I am horrified to learn that Israel intends continuing to pursue its aims by military means using disproportionate violence which inevitably means further wholesale slaughter,” he said.
“I am also deeply disturbed by emerging allegations of human rights atrocities.”
In Belfast, around 5,000 marched through the centre city calling for an end to violence in the Middle East.
At City Hall speakers from the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU), who planned the event, plus representatives of the four main Christian churches, addressed the peace rally.
Catholic Bishop Donal McKeown told the crowd, which included families with children, that young people in Gaza were the victims of a wider conflict.
Church of Ireland representative Archdeacon Billy Dodds and Methodist Church representative Rev. Derek Johnson called for an end to hostilities on both sides.
Rev Dr Mark Gray of the Presbyterian Church expressed concerns at the levels of violence and added: “We must work for the dignity of all people.”
The Democratic Unionist Party condemned the march as anti-Israel and pro-Hamas.