LAST UPDATE | 12 Jul 2024

TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has said Israeli attacks on humanitarian and civilian infrastructure are “clear violations of international humanitarian law”.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs come as around sixty bodies were found under the rubble of a Gaza neighbourhood after footage of an Israeli missile attack on a school circulated on social media during this week.

An upsurge in fighting, Israeli bombardments and Palestinian displacement in the east of the Gaza Strip has taking place as peace talks are being held in Qatar, where it was urged both sides must quell fighting as the groups work towards a truce.

Today, Martin condemned the attacks, which were captured on video and seen by millions online, on a school while children played football and others sought refuge.

“It is reported that the strike occurred as people gathered to watch children play a football match – a particularly grim detail in a week where millions across Europe have watched football from the safety of their living rooms,” Martin said.

“Attacks on humanitarian facilities and locations where civilians are sheltering are abhorrent, and are clear violations of international humanitarian law.”

Martin added that the international community must have accountability for all civilian deaths and “violations of international humanitarian law” by all actors in this conflict. 

He urged both Israel and Hamas to give up their weapons, that all hostages be freed and that parties to push towards implementing the three-phased ceasefire arrangement that was approved by the United Nations’ Security Council.

“The bloodshed, destruction and trauma must end,” he added.

People seen on a street with destroyed buildings in the Shujaiya neighborhood in east of Gaza City yesterday. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Israel retain control of key Gaza territory along the border with Egypt – a condition that conflicts with Hamas’s position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said around 60 bodies had been found under the rubble in Shujaiya, after some of Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months.

Hamas said Israel’s operation there had left “more than 300 residential units and more than 100 business destroyed”.

Mohammed Nairi, a Shujaiya resident, said he and others returning to the neighbourhood had seen “immense destruction that defies description. All the houses were demolished.”

Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel sparked the current conflict, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly Israeli civilians. The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel has responded with a military offensive that has lasted almost 10 months and has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry.

‘Difficult, complex issues’

Netanyahu’s office confirmed that its negotiating team, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, had returned to Israel following talks with mediators in Doha yesterday.

Speaking after the team’s return, Netanyahu said Israel needed control of the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border with Egypt to stop weapons reaching Hamas.

He added that Israel must also be allowed to keep on fighting until its war aims of destroying Hamas and bringing home all hostages are achieved.

In Washington, Biden acknowledged “difficult, complex issues” remain between Israel and Hamas, but that progress was being made in reaching a ceasefire deal.

“There’s a lot of things in retrospect I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do, but the bottom line is we have a chance now. It’s time to end this war,” he said after a NATO summit.

The Washington Post had reported on Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had “signalled their acceptance of an ‘interim governance’ plan” in which neither would rule the territory and a US-trained force of Palestinian Authority supporters would provide security.

The Pentagon has also announced it will soon permanently end its problem-plagued effort to deliver aid to Gaza by sea from Cyprus using a temporary pier that had been repeatedly damaged by weather conditions.

The UN’s health agency meanwhile said that only five trucks carrying medical supplies were allowed into Gaza last week.

“More than 34 of our trucks are waiting at the Al Arish crossing, and 850 pallets of medical supplies are awaiting collection. A further 40 trucks are waiting at Ismailiya in Egypt,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday on social media platform X.

- includes reporting by © AFP 2024