'It's not justifiable': Tánaiste says Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp not a proportionate attack

Micheál Martin said he had been 'shocked' by the attack on the camp

Air strikes by the Israeli Defence Forces levelled apartment blocks within the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza city, with health officials confirming there were about 50 Palestinian civilians killed. Picture: AP/Abdul Qader Sabbah

The Israeli missile strike on a refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday was not a proportionate attack “in any shape or form”, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said.

Air strikes by the Israeli Defence Forces levelled apartment blocks within the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza city, with health officials confirming there were about 50 Palestinian civilians killed.

Israel defended the attack, saying it launched the strike against the camp to kill a senior Hamas commander.

Mr Martin said he had been “shocked” by the attack on the camp.

“I watched it last evening. Whole families destroyed, killed. Fathers talking about losing their children,” Mr Martin said, speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show.

“It’s horrific and it’s not justifiable and in our view, it adds pressure to the need to have a humanitarian pause here, a humanitarian ceasefire, to enable aid to get in.” 

Mr Martin said while he understood Israel’s need to go after Hamas, he said the attack itself was not proportionate.

Tánaiste Michael Martin said there was both a moral and legal question for Israel to answer over the attack. File picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

“There is an issue of proportionality here because when you bomb a refugee camp, which is a town in itself of long duration, it's there for many, many decades, there is no doubt many, many civilians will be killed, children will be killed,” he said.

I do not believe it was a proportionate attack last evening, in any shape or form.

The Tánaiste said there was both a moral and legal question for Israel to answer over the attack.

“In my view, what is Israel saying? That if we take out a commander of Hamas, and some underground tunnels, that that's worth how many hundred lives? Is that the moral question that has to be put before us?

“I’m very clear on what side I’m on. You cannot knowingly take out hundreds of civilians who are not Hamas because of the cowardly and unacceptable and illegal use of civilians as human shields.” 

On what happens following the war between Hamas and Israel, Mr Martin said there needed to be a “properly determined attempt” at a two-state solution.

However, he said he did not see this happening in the short term.

“Although I do sense internationally, a collective view that we cannot let things continue in the aftermath of this, as was happening before,” Mr Martin said.

It comes as the first group of evacuees were able to leave Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday, with the Department of Foreign Affairs saying they have not been notified of any Irish nationals being among them.

A spokesperson for the department said: “We have not been notified of any Irish citizens included in this first group, but are urgently seeking to have Irish people included in subsequent evacuations. Our embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv are in constant communication with the authorities in Egypt and Israel about Irish people stuck in Gaza.

“The department is also in regular communication with Irish citizens on the ground, although there are ongoing communication challenges. We are updating citizens directly as we have confirmed information.”