Crowds gather outside Israeli Embassy

Up to 150 protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin today to demand an end to the attacks on Lebanon.

Lebanese nationals, Palestine supporters, anti-war campaigners, former Irish peacekeeping soldiers and militant Hezbollah backers were among the noisy demonstration.

With feelings running high, sporadic disputes broke out as a minority chanted pro-Hezbollah slogans.

Around a dozen uniformed Gardaí marshalled the rally staged after a march from Dublin’s Central Bank to the embassy in Ballsbridge.

Standing under the flag of Israel, demonstrators held aloft Lebanese and Palestinian flags and placards urging a halt to the conflict.

Several passing motorists sounded car horns in support.

A number of people donned fake-blood spattered t-shirts and lay on the ground in silence to signify the mounting death toll. Ciaran O’Neill, 33, from Dublin, working with Aer Rianta in Beirut for the last four years, was among those forced to flee their adopted home last week.

“I have lots of friends there with young families and they don’t deserve this,” he said. “They’re a very peace-loving people and 99% of them have nothing to do with the conflict.

“Hezbollah doesn’t have a mandate to carry out these actions, similar to the way the IRA didn’t have a mandate to carry out its actions.”

Former Irish soldier David Doyle, 59, from Wexford, was also one of those evacuated.

“The biggest reason I’m here today has to do with accountability,” he said. “Nobody is holding the Israelis accountable for their actions. The Nazis were called to justice, the Balkan war criminals were called to justice. The Israelis have not been.”

Now working on an EU-funded youth education programme in Lebanon, he lost 57 Irish colleagues between 1980 and 1984 while serving as a peacekeeper.

“Things that can’t even remotely be considered as military targets are simply being bombarded off the face of the earth there every day,” he said.

Another former peacekeeper, Michael MacDiarmuda, 45, from Kildare, was due to fly out to Lebanon today where he manages humanitarian building projects carried out by Irish trades people.

“Only this morning I got a call from my friend whose 7-year-old niece lost half her leg in an attack,” he said. “I’m hearing some terrible atrocities, people are pleading ’please, please help us.”’

Ali Hassan, 40, a Lebanese bus driver in Dublin for the last 12 years, was visiting his family in Beirut when the attacks began.

The married father-of-two was forced to cut his holiday short for the sake of his own young family.

“I’m happy my kids are safe here,” he said. “But my heart is still with my other family. They are in a no win situation. What is happening there is crazy.

“If the Americans say to Israel tomorrow to stop, they will. I don’t think the Americans can talk about democracy while watching people die every day.

“This is not democracy.”