Sir, – Gaza authorities have reported that of the 13,300 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7th, 5,600 are children and 3,550 are women (“Israel-Hamas War: ‘Truce close to being reached’ says Hamas leader”, World, November 21st).
According to World Health Organisation reports, there are an estimated 50,000 women who are pregnant in Gaza; 180 give birth every day. With 14 hospitals and 45 primary health centres closed, women are giving birth in bombed-out homes, in temporary shelters, in overcrowded healthcare facilities, in the open – with no access to emergency obstetrical, anaesthetic, or neonatal services.
As the war continues, the maternal death rate is expected to soar, as well as the incidence of miscarriage, stillbirth, and death from prematurity. Deaths from infection could yet surpass those from trauma.
Babies and children were also among the 1,200 killed in the attack on Israel on October 7th; at least 35 children are among the 240-plus hostages being held; within the last few days, it has been reported that a woman held as a hostage has delivered a baby.
Matt Williams: Take a deep breath and see how Sam Prendergast copes with big Fiji test
New Irish citizens: ‘I hear the racist and xenophobic slurs on the streets. Everything is blamed on immigrants’
Crucial election weekend begins amid campaign as bland as an Uncle Colm monologue on Derry Girls
Jack Reynor: ‘We were in two minds between eloping or going the whole hog but we got married in Wicklow with about 220 people’
News of a potential temporary truce offers an opportunity to improve the plight of civilians who have been most affected by the war.
Every effort needs be made to safeguard the health of pregnant women, babies, and children, including safe evacuation to appropriately resourced facilities. Hospitals should not be targeted or used for military purposes. Children who are being held hostage should be immediately released, as well as the Israeli mother and her newborn baby.
Doctors, midwives, and nurses who work in maternity and paediatric hospitals in Israel and Gaza should join forces in calling for this, along with their colleagues from around the world. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
(Retired consultant
obstetrician and gynaecologist
and former Master of the Coombe
Hospital, Dublin),
Dublin 6.
Sir, – In noting the virtues of the anti-Israeli protesters around the world, Una Mullally celebrates the emergence of a new shared humanity among the younger generation, a group, she says, better understand and care more about pretty much everything (“Out of the horror of Gaza, a shared humanity is emerging”, Opinion & Analysis, November 20th). However, it is strange that these compassionate souls don’t seem to be moved by civilians dying in Syria, or casualties from Saudi bombing raids in Yemen. The entire continent of Africa also seems to have escaped this great altruistic enlightenment, along with the estimated 1.7 million refugees from Afghanistan who face life-threatening deportation from Pakistan. There is no march to protest the treatment of women in many Muslim countries.
While a call for peace and an end to the tragedy in the Middle East is always to be applauded, what we are witnessing today is not a new humanity, but rather the near instant radicalisation of a selectively outraged, populist, ill-informed and social media-driven sub-culture. Perhaps I am wrong about this; if so, you will find me standing shoulder to shoulder with you, marching for international action on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Darfur. – Is mise,
SEAN MOONEY,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – It is no wonder Israeli and Jewish students are fearful on campus when a university professor defends an organisation like the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as “a left-wing political party who are trying to provide loyal opposition within the Palestinian Authority” (“Israel-Hamas war is stirring tensions on college campuses”, News, November 21st).
The PFLP is an internationally designated terrorist organisation, proscribed by the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union. It is responsible for terror attacks inside and outside Israel. Most recently, the PFLP celebrated the October 7th attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas and boasted of its members’ participation in the massacre. Its flag should not be tolerated on campuses in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
TERESA TRAINOR,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – How heartwarming it was to read Jade Wilson’s article and see the happiness and love as innocent Irish-Palestinian children and fathers were reunited in Dublin Airport. And how heartwarming it was to know of the efforts, behind the scenes, of the Palestinian ambassador, Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, who said, “I’m here today to welcome them. We will not spare any effort to help them” (“Irish-Palestinian father reunited with children after wife killed in Gaza”, News, November 19th).
I hope and trust that Ms Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid will equally spare no efforts in putting pressure on her fellow Palestinians in Hamas to release innocent Israeli children and civilians so that they too can be reunited with their families.
What a welcome it would be for nine-year-old Irish-Israeli child Emily Hand to be reunited with her father. – Yours, etc,
RORY O’SULLIVAN,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – In her far-sighted Opinion piece of November 20th, Una Mullally states: “It can be difficult to consider or hypothesise about the long-term impact of what has been happening in Gaza, because the immediate situation is so pressing.”
It is also difficult to see beyond despair and powerlessness because the situation is so depressing.
Giving expression to this despair and powerlessness can indeed seem distant and academic but, in much of what she argues is problematic, hope can be found. The generational change she mentions is not new. The younger generation of today certainly have more issues of concern than my generation did, but protesting the atrocity of war is not a new phenomenon, although the linking of climate crisis, capitalism, human rights and freedom of expression may be.
As one who protested the war on Vietnam, the war on Iraq and now still actively protests the war on the Palestinian people, I can only suggest that protest should be directed where action can be achieved, ie locally. Our protests should focus on the need to immediately reintroduce a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Bill to the Oireachtas. It may be the only concrete measure currently open to the Irish people to show their disgust with Israeli actions against the Palestinian population. – Yours, etc,
RORY O’GRADY,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Kenneth Harper claims that Binyamin Netanyahu, Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin are not at risk from prosecution at the International Criminal Court since their respective countries are not signatories to the Rome Statute (Letters, November 21st).
Under its charter, the ICC may exercise jurisdiction when a case is referred to it by the United Nations Security Council, irrespective as to whether the act of aggression involves state parties or non-state parties, and regardless of whether the alleged offending entity is a signatory to the Rome Statute. Hence, Mr Harper’s claim that Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats are indulging in populism and “gesture politics” does not hold water. The problem is not “gesture politics”, but the moral bankruptcy of the so-called “mature parties” lauded by Mr Harper: Western governments that are unwilling to deal with injustices and atrocities committed by states that they regard as friendly. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Kenneth Harper, noting that Israel has never signed up to the Rome Statute setting up the International Criminal Court (ICC) claims that there is little or no point to moves to refer Mr Netanyahu to the ICC. He dismisses Dáil moves on the issue as mere populism.
However, though Russia has never signed up to the ICC, an arrest warrant – valid in ICC member states – has been issued for Mr Putin.
This warrant carries a risk of arrest in all 124 ICC states and severely restricts Mr Putin’s ability to engage in international travel.
A similar warrant for Mr Netanyahu would have the same effect and might give him pause for thought. – Yours, etc,
HARRY McCAULEY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.