Ireland 'cannot accept' collective punishment of Gaza's population, Tánaiste warns

Speaking in Cork, the Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin said: 'It simply isn't feasible that a million people can move out of a city in 24 hours'

Palestinians evacuate wounded after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. Photo: AP/Hatem Ali

Ireland "cannot accept the collective punishment of an entire population", Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said, as he called for Israel to rescind its order for 1.1 million people to evacuate north Gaza.

Speaking in Cork, the Foreign Affairs Minister said that "it simply isn't feasible that a million people can move out of a city in 24 hours" and that "two wrongs don't make a right", referring to Israel's retaliation to Hamas' attacks.

The area in question encompasses all of Gaza City and the Jabalya and Beach Camp refugee areas, as well as Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia towns. Altogether, around 1.1 million people live in the area, which is one of the most densely populated in the region. 

Israel is primed for a mass offensive and has lined up hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Mr Martin said: "That call by Israel should be rescinded and should be pulled back because I think everybody knows it's not something that can be achieved at all. I think it puts enormous trauma on the ordinary civilians and Gazans. Two wrongs don't make a right.

"There's an obligation to protect civilians in Gaza, to protect children and families and so forth, and people who have nothing to do with Hamas. 

There are challenges, I would accept that Israel has the legitimate right to deal with Hamas because Hamas has waged war on Israel and its civilians. But it cannot be in the context of an attack on the civilian population of Gaza.

"Our value system is one that does not in any way support any collective punishment of an entire population. That is not acceptable from our perspective," he said.

Mr Martin, who was at at event to mark one of the largest libraries in the world, Japan’s National Diet Library, agreeing to give University College Cork (UCC) access to its contents, said that Ireland has "been very clear that Israel has a right to self-defence, but it must be within international law".

"There are obligations on the Geneva Convention and it simply isn't feasible that a million people can move out of the city in 24 hours," he said.

Mr Martin said that he is not worried about the EU fracturing over its collective response to the crisis, insisting that the EU Neighbourhood Commissioner, Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi, was not speaking for most foreign affairs ministers at EU level.

Mr Varhelhi set off a firestorm of criticism when he tweeted that the European Commission would review €691m in aid to the Palestinian Authority, as well as suspending all payments immediately.

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Mr Martin said: "I must say at European Foreign Affairs Council level during the week, there was very unity of purpose in respect of maintaining development assistance to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority, and also humanitarian assistance. I think Europe will unite on this. There was also very strong consensus on the application of international law in terms of any response by Israel in Gaza.

"I must say, I was heartened by the debate we had in the Foreign Affairs Council. There was concern also articulated by Commissioner Varhelhi's tweet the previous day when he seemed to indicate unilaterally that there would be a suspension of aid and that he initiated a review of assistance. There was a lot of criticism of that, Ireland certainly has no truck with that, Ireland doesn't accept that, and takes a much different view altogether."

The vast majority of foreign affairs ministers are of a similar view, he added.