Irish Medical Organisation joins calls for Government to help get aid to people in Gaza
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, during their funeral in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City today. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
The Irish Medical Organisation has joined the chorus of calls on the Irish Government to do all it can to help get aid to people in Gaza.
Dr Anne Dee, president of the IMO, has written to Taoiseach Michéal Martin to express “grave concern and fear” on behalf of her organisation at what is happening in Gaza. The IMO represents 5,000 doctors in Ireland.
Dr Dee strongly criticised the actions of Israeli authorities: "We are seeing blatant contraventions of international humanitarian law by the state of Israel, and I urge the Irish government to do all in its power, nationally and through international organisations to end this horror and to ensure that Israel honours its obligations under international law.”
She added: "We abhor the actions of Hamas and we call for the return of hostages and an immediate ceasefire. But what we are witnessing in Gaza at the moment is mass starvation arising from a deliberate blockade of aid through well-established partnerships, by the state of Israel."
She criticised the introduction of Israeli-backed aid agencies “where the most vulnerable, who are seeking assistance, either have been killed or are putting themselves at risk of being killed or injured as they try to feed themselves and their families".
“There is no functioning healthcare system in Gaza and many of our healthcare colleagues have died, along with their patients, as healthcare facilities have come under military attack," she said.
This comes as a group of 50 Irish activists are about to join a global march to Rafah in support of the people of Palestine. From June 12 to 20 they will be at the Rafah border among thousands of people to demand an end to the genocide.
Cork podcast producer, Bairbre Flood, will be part of the group heading to the Rafah border.
"The governments of the world aren't doing anything and the Irish government isn't doing anything. I feel like, as citizens, we have to really step up now and do something to stop this genocide," she told the .
Ms Flood said there are concrete steps Ireland could take.
"Why hasn’t the Occupied Territories Bill been passed yet? The Central Bank still allowing the sale of Israeli bonds in Ireland, the issue of war planes stopping in Shannon. These are really concrete steps that Ireland could take.
"I feel like we should be putting more pressure on America," she said.
On June 12, she will be travelling to Cairo before getting onto a bus to Al-Arish. She will then march to the Rafah border.
"We have about two nights camping in the desert, and then we should get to Rafah," she explained.
She said one of the most important actions would be for "America to stop supplying the weapons" to the Israeli army.
"The second most important thing that they need to do is open the border for all the humanitarian aid. There are thousands of trucks sitting with medicines and food and supplies for Palestinian people, and the Americans and the Israelis are blocking it from coming in.
"Doctors and medics who've gone over there are coming back and telling us they're seeing children with gunshot wounds to the head, deliberately targeted by the Israeli and shot in the head. We’re getting such a mountain of evidence,
"I really feel like most people want this to stop. They want Palestine to be free and for the Israelis to leave Gaza," she said.
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