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LAST UPDATE | 19 Mar
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D HIGGINS has called on people in positions of influence to “break their silence” and appeal for the ceasefire in Gaza to be respected, as a number of world leaders have condemned Israel’s renewed attacks on the territory.
Israel yesterday launched its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a 19 January ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas ended more than 15 months of war.
The bombardments, which came after the collapse of talks on extending the truce, killed close to 1,000 people, the health ministry in Gaza said.
The airstrikes continued in the region overnight, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more.
In a statement this afternoon, Higgins appealed for world leaders to appeal for the ceasefire to be respected, for “unimpeded” humanitarian assistance to be re-established and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally.
“The loss of so many lives, including those of women and children, must be recognised and addressed,” Higgins said.
“The credibility of all those who present as strong advocates for international law and humanitarian action is called into question and indeed strongly compromised by any silence in the face of what appears to be the real danger of the potential loss of the second phase of a ceasefire in the conflict”.
“There is responsibility on all those who hold elected office not only to be aware of, but to comment on the continuing outrage that the escalation in the loss of civilian life and infrastructure represents,” Higgins added.
It is unclear if Higgins was directly referring to any individuals in the statement.
The President said that the Irish Government has “strongly condemned” the renewed violence which has taken place in recent days.
“The retention of hostages is of course a clear continuing breach of international law and they must be released,” Higgins said.
Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s foreign minister has said that Israel’s raids on Gaza are “shattering” hopes for peace.
It comes as the UK Government rowed back criticism from its own Foreign Secretary, who described the withholding of aid as a “breach of international law”.
Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock today said that the Israeli strikes in Gaza “are shattering the tangible hopes of so many Israelis and Palestinians of an end to suffering on all sides”.
Speaking before starting a trip to Lebanon, she called on “all sides” in the conflict to “show restraint, respect humanitarian law and return to talks” after hundreds were killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza.
“The lives of dozens of hostages, including Germans… (and) of many thousands of Palestinians” depend on peace, she said.
She also warned that there was “a serious risk of wider regional escalation” at a time when “the situation in Lebanon has stabilised and there have been steps towards settling the conflict at the Israeli-Lebanese border”.
Baerbock will hold meetings with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, both of whom took office this year in the wake of a war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
And while Baerbock called on all sides to “respect humanitarian law”, the UK government yesterday sought to water down criticism of Israel by its own Foreign Secretary, David Lammy.
On Monday, Lammy told the UK Parliament that Israel’s blocking of aid into Gaza is a breach of international law.
Lammy said that “Israel quite rightly must defend its own security” but added that the “lack of aid is unacceptable, hugely alarming and very worrying”, as well as being a “breach of international law”.
Lammy later said he “could have been clearer” in his comments, while a spokesperson for British prime minister Keir Starmer watered down the statement by the British Foreign Secretary.
While Lammy said the withholding of aid is a “breach” of international law, a spokesperson for Starmer remarked that Israel’s actions are “at clear risk” of breaching international law.
The spokesperson was speaking hours after the Israeli strikes on Gaza.
“The UK government is not an international court, and, therefore, it is up to courts to make judgments,” added the spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Starmer today told parliament that he is “deeply concerned about the resumption of Israeli military action in Gaza”.
“The images of parents carrying their children, young children to hospitals… are truly shocking,” he added.
Elsewhere, the EU’’s top diplomat today revealed that she told her Israeli counterpart that the fresh wave of strikes on Gaza was “unacceptable”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she asked Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar “Why are you doing this?” during a conversation yesterday.
Kallas said she conveyed “the message that this is unacceptable”, referring specifically to “the loss of civilian lives”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned late yesterday that the strikes were “only the beginning” and that future negotiations with Hamas “will take place only under fire”.
Kallas said she would travel to Egypt on Sunday to discuss the situation with the “Arab Quint” bringing together Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, adding there was a need to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel.
Elsewhere, France president Emmanuel Macron described the Israeli strikes as ”a dramatic step backwards”.
“It’s dramatic for the Palestinians of Gaza, who are again plunged into the terror of bombardment, and dramatic for the (Israeli) hostages and their families who live in the nightmare of uncertainty,” he added.
Macron was speaking alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who labelled the strikes an “extremely dangerous step that adds further devastation to an already dire humanitarian situation”.
Abdullah called for the ceasefire to be restored and for the flow of aid to resume immediately.
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the return of all the hostages seized by the Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.
In Jerusalem, thousands of protesters marched today and chanted slogans against the Netanyahu and his government, accusing the Israeli Prime Minister of undermining democracy and resuming Gaza bombardments without regard for hostages.
Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem and have said the decision to resume strikes could “sacrifice” their loved ones.
“We hope all people from Israel will join this movement and we will not stop until we restore democracy and freedom for the hostages,” said Zeev Berar, 68, from Tel Aviv.
“At this rate we won’t have a country left, not a democratic one. It will be a dictatorship,” student Roni Sharon, 18, told AFP.
Some in the crowd brandished banners reading: “We are all hostages”.
Haaretz is the longest-running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and has a liberal outlook.
On today’s front-page, journalist Amos Harel said Israel “knowingly violated the ceasefire agreement” with its strikes on Gaza while Dahlia Scheindlin remarked that “Israelis don’t want more war”.
The main picture on the front-page featured a man holding his 11-month-old nephew who was killed in Tuesday’s strikes.
But while a grieving man is featured on the Haaretz front-page, The Jerusalem Post shows IDF soldiers in front of several tanks near the border with Gaza.
In an analysis piece on the front page, The Jerusalem Post welcomed the new Trump administration and remarked that Israel can now “wage” war “without fear of the US applying the breaks – thanks to Trump”.
The paper claimed that Israel was “operating under constraints” while Joe Biden was president.
And on the website for Yedioth Ahronoth, one of Israel’s most popular sites, the main focus today is on internal wranglings within the Israeli government between Netanyahu and the director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
Netanyahu last week said he has “ongoing distrust” of Shin Bet director Ronen Bar.
Shin Bet recently issued a report accepting responsibility for its failures around the 7 October attack but also criticised Netanyahu, saying government policies were among the causes.
Elsewhere, Al Jazeera’s online coverage leads with Hamas accusing Netanyahu of “bad faith” and of “backing down” on the ceasefire agreement.
- © AFP 2025 with additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper and Andrew Walsh
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