LAST UPDATE | 6 hrs ago
THE TÁNAISTE HAS condemned the “horrific scenes” unfolding in Jabalia and northern Gaza, saying Israeli forces are committing a war crime.
In a statement released today, Micheál Martin said an offensive by the Israeli Defence Forces, backed by tanks and air strikes, “has left dozens of civilians dead, many close to starvation, and access to humanitarian aid extremely curtailed”.
“An entire population is being encircled and forced out, with nowhere for them to go. This represents a mass expulsion of people from their homeland.
It is a war crime, and the international community must use every lever at its disposal to pressure Israel to stop this war.
“The UN and the world’s media must be allowed immediate access to witness what is happening. This war must end.”
Martin said he will raise Ireland’s “profound concern” and “the urgency of bringing an end to this devastation” at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow.
Earlier, Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli stirke on the central Gaza Strip has killed a family of eight.
The strike came as Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants and pushed for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the north of the territory.
Red Cross paramedics were struck while attending the scene of an air strike, while coordinating their dispatch with UN peacekeepers.
It comes following the wounding of five Unifil peacekeepers in separate attacks this week, with the UN and Ireland pointing the finger at Israeli troops as responsible for most of the incidents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today called on the UN chief to remove peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon out of “harm’s way”.
“Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office.
Taoiseach Simon Harris yesterday said he is “extraordinarily concerned” about the situation in southern Lebanon.
Harris said Ireland is monitoring the safety of its troops “not on a daily basis, but on an hourly basis”.
“The advice at the moment from the generals on the ground, both UN and from our generals and chiefs of staff here in our Defence Forces, is that the mission should continue.
“But it is a very dangerous situation, we need to be clear about that,” Harris stated.
The strike in Gaza late yesterday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing two parents and their six children, who ranged in age from eight to 23, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
It said another seven people were wounded, including two women and a child in critical condition. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies and filmed funeral prayers held at the hospital.
More than a year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day.
The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. In recent months, it has repeatedly struck schools being used as shelters by displaced people, accusing militants of hiding among them.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabalia, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the opening weeks of the war.
The Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements.
Israel is also waging an air and ground campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when.
The Lebanese Red Cross said its paramedics were hit by a strike today while attending the site of an earlier attack in the south, leaving them lightly injured.
It said its ambulance teams were dispatched to the scene in coordination with UN peacekeepers following an air strike on a house.
“As the team was searching for casualties to rescue, the house was hit for a second time resulting in concussions to the volunteers and damage to the two ambulances,” the Red Cross added.
Fighting has continued this weekend, with the Israeli army announcing it captured a Hezbollah fighter in a tunnel in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it clashed at “point-blank range” with Israeli troops at a Lebanon border village today after earlier saying they launched a rocket salvo at a base in southern Haifa.
Hezbollah fighters launched a rocket salvo on a “base in southern Haifa”, the group said in a statement, later reporting they clashed with Israeli troops at the border village of Blida “with machine guns at point-blank range”.
With reporting by Órla Ryan, AFP and PA
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