DUBLIN, (PIC)
Ireland’s premier Simon Harris has called for an “urgent review” of the European Union’s partnership agreement with Israel, a day after an Israeli airstrike targeted a school in Gaza City, killing over 100 Palestinians and injuring dozens.
Speaking at the Tullamore Show in County Offaly early on Sunday, premier Harris said that this weekend brings the “grisly milestone” of 40,000 deaths in Gaza “a step closer,” as he condemned the Israeli bombing of the school.
Harris said there is growing evidence of a “prolonged humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip.
The Irish premier said he is “particularly disturbed” by a confirmation from the UN that the number of aid deliveries reaching Gaza has halved, from a daily average of 169 trucks in April to fewer than 80 trucks a day in June and July.
“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also says that only 24 of 67 planned aid missions to northern Gaza this month have been facilitated by Israel,” Harris added.
“The United Nations has also assessed that more than 80 per cent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders since October of last year. When people are told to leave, they have nowhere to go, so they often go to schools,” Harris said.
“Some 490 of Gaza’s schools have been bombed or damaged since the start of the war, and this weekend’s images from inside al-Taba’een school are gut-wrenching. Ireland condemns outright such awful and wholesale loss of civilian life.”
“A ceasefire remains urgently needed, and all sides must immediately work in good faith to bring one about.”
“We have all been horrified by the many undoubted war crimes that have been committed in Gaza. There can be no impunity. Those responsible must be held to account.”
The Irish premier also called on Israel to implement the orders of the International Court of Justice in full, which called for an end to its “illegal” occupation of the Gaza Strip.
“Too many innocent lives have been lost in 10 months,” Harris added.
“The world is standing at the precipice of a horrific moment, and yet all levers to bring an end to the violence are not being used. I again call for an urgent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The agreement contains human rights clauses, and I do not believe it is conscionable for the EU to continue to render them redundant,” he emphasized.
