GAZA TENSIONS: Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy ‘deeply regrettable,’ and rejected the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel
AP, DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip
Israel on Sunday said that it would close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed more than 46 people, including several children.
The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.”
Israel in May recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, that it would recognize a Palestinian state.
People inspect the damage from an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
The Irish Cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel denies it.
“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said.
Saar’s statement on the embassy closure said that “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy “deeply regrettable.”
“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law,” he wrote on social media.
Israeli forces on Sunday continued to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.
A large explosion lit up the southern Gaza skyline on Sunday night.
An Israeli airstrike hit a school and killed at least 16 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
There was no immediate Israeli military statement.
In the north, an airstrike hit Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where the casualties were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter, and a father and his son, the hospital said.
In Gaza City, at least 17 people, including six women and five children, were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, according to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said a bandaged Yahia al-Yazji, who grieved for his wife and daughter. “I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone. My wife was three months pregnant.”
His hand rested on a body wrapped in a blanket on the floor.
Israel’s military in a statement said that it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.
Another Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian journalist working for al-Jazeera, Ahmed al-Lawh, in central Gaza, a hospital and the Qatari-based TV station said.
The strike hit Gaza’s civil defense agency in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, al-Awda Hospital said. Also killed were three civil defense workers, including the local head of the agency, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
One of the bodies was covered with an orange work jacket marked “ambulance” in English.
“We, the civil defense, are carrying out humanitarian work like in any country in the world. Why are we being targeted?” Kerem al-Dalou said.
Israel’s military said that it struck a militant command center embedded in the civil defense offices.
Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million has been displaced, often multiple times. The hospitals that are still functioning say they lack medicines, fuel and other basic supplies, while aid groups warn of widespread hunger.
World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain told CBS on Sunday that the UN agency was able to get just two trucks of supplies into Gaza last month, citing insecurity.
“We need a ceasefire, and we need it now,” she said. “We can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death.”
