A NUMBER OF Irish writers have signed an open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded admission of humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

The letter has been signed by 600 people, including Irish writers Sally Rooney, Anne Enright, Naoise Dolan and Megan Nolan. Artists and writers based in elsewhere in the EU and in the UK and US have also signed the letter. 

“The deliberate killing of civilians is always an atrocity. It is a violation of international law and an outrage against the sanctity of human life,” the letter says. 

“In Gaza, neither the occupying power, Israel, nor the armed groups of the people under occupation, the Palestinians, can ever be justified in targeting defenceless people. We can only express our grief and heartbreak for the victims of these most recent tragedies, and for their families, both Palestinians and Israelis,” it says. 

The letter goes on to say that “nothing can retrieve what has already been lost”, but adds that “the unprecedented and indiscriminate violence that is still escalating against the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, with the financial and political support of Western powers, can and must be brought to an end”.

“By cutting off vital electricity, food and water supplies; by attempting to displace by force over one million Palestinians from their homes, with no guarantee of return; and by carrying out continual airstrikes against civilians, including those who are attempting to evacuate, the state of Israel is committing grave crimes against humanity,” the letter says.

“Its allies, our own governments, are complicit in these crimes,” it says. 

Before hundreds were reported dead following a strike on a hospital in Gaza yesterday, Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed at least 2,778 people, nearly two-thirds of them children, and wounded 9,700 others, according to the Gaza health ministry.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians who died in Hamas’s attack on Saturday, 7 October  The assault also resulted in some 200 being taken captive into Gaza.

The open letter continues: “Human rights groups have long condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the inhumane treatment of – and system of racial domination over – Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state.

“But we are now witnessing a new and even more drastic emergency. The UN expert Francesca Albanese has warned that Israel’s current actions in Gaza constitute a form of ethnic cleansing. The Israeli historian Raz Segal has described the situation in Gaza as a ‘textbook case of genocide’.”

The writers and artists are calling on their governments to “demand an immediate ceasefire and the unimpeded admission of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.

“We also demand an end to all arms shipments and military funding, supplies that can only exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe at hand. Although these measures will not be enough to secure true justice, liberation and equality for all in the region, they represent an urgent and indispensable first step,” the letter says.

“We plead for an end to all violence, an end to all oppression and denial of human rights, and a path towards a just and sustainable peace for all.”

With reporting by Press Association