Israel appears to be following a premeditated strategy of facilitating the killing of civilians and children in Gaza, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said, as he condemned an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter.
About 100 people were killed in the strike on the school in central Gaza City, which also left another 47 people injured, Gaza’s ministry for health said.
In one of his strongest condemnations of Israel since it invaded Gaza last October, Mr Martin suggested the targeting by the IDF of places relied upon for shelter by civilians, including children, seemed to be a deliberate strategy.
“The slaughter has to stop. It seems to me that Israel is premeditatedly facilitating and planning the killing of civilians and children,” he said.
“They say they are targeting Hamas but they must know that within these attacks, huge numbers of civilians have been killed.”
Mr Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the attack by Israel over the weekend on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza, which killed as many as 100 people, was the fourth such attack by Israel on school-based shelters in Gaza in the last month. Israel claimed that Hamas militants were based in the school.
Mr Martin was speaking to reporters on Sunday. He said that there was a need for an immediate ceasefire, emerging out of peace talks being brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.
“It is appalling what is happening. There is a major emergency from the perspective of nutrition, food, and disease as well, on top of the killing of innocents. It simply has to stop.
“The danger of a wider escalation is there all the time, given what has happened in terms of recent killings. We appeal for de-escalation. There’s a need for people to step back from what’s happening at the moment.”
He said the Hamas attack on October 7 was horrendous but did not justify the response of Israel which has been to level Gaza.
“When I say premeditated, Israel must know when it’s (dropping) 2,000 pound bombs on Gaza that innocents will be slaughtered and murdered.”
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that this weekend brings the “grisly milestone” of 40,000 deaths in Gaza “a step closer”
Mr Harris said there is growing evidence of a “prolonged humanitarian catastrophe”.
Mr Harris said that all the orders of the International Court of Justice must be implemented in full, which called for an end to its “illegal” occupation of the Gaza Strip.
“Too many innocent lives have been lost in 10 months,” Mr Harris added.
“The world is standing at the precipice of a horrific moment, and yet all levers to bring an end to the violence are not being used.
“I again call for an urgent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The agreement contains human rights clauses, and I do not believe it is conscionable for the EU to continue to render them redundant.
“Ireland calls for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of Israeli hostages, and for aid trucks to flow unimpeded.”
Asked about Taoiseach Simon Harris’s comments about a need for an urgent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, particularly in light of its human rights clauses, Mr Martin said Ireland has done everything it possibly can as an individual country.
“We can’t convince everybody in the EU. We have to work to persuade them. We have had significant progress in terms of changing the dialogue.
He said that Ireland had tabled the human rights clauses but said that some EU members were reluctant “to go down that route”.
He said that history would not judge the EU well in terms of the conflict in Gaza. He said the absence of unity in the EU over the conflict was a factor with which he was not happy.
“There has to be a moral equation here. There has to be proportionality under international humanitarian law in terms of one’s actions.– PA
