Taoiseach says Israel’s Gaza blockade 'clearly constitutes a war crime'

Micheál Martin and Simon Harris condemn aid blockade and reaffirm Ireland’s commitment to a two-state solution for peace

Palestinians, holding pan including children, create a stampede to get hot meals, distributed by charitable organizations to displaced Palestinians amid Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on May 6, 2025. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel's fifty-plus-day blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza "clearly constitutes a war crime", the Taoiseach has said.

There must be an immediate resumption of unhindered humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and at an unprecedented scale, as Gaza moves closer to a hunger crisis, Micheál Martin said.

On Tuesday, Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the Gaza Strip should be “entirely destroyed” and its inhabitants “leave in great numbers to third countries” after the war, in what would effectively amount to ethnic cleansing.

Smotrich’s comments came after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for an expanded offensive which could see the forced displacement of most Palestinian people in Gaza and occupation of the territory on an indefinite basis.

In response, Hamas said there was no sense in truce talks (for a temporary ceasefire agreement) with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel’s “hunger war” against Gaza, a reference to the total blockade on aid deliveries to Gaza.

Israel is reportedly planning to take control of the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza, using private American security contractors, as a condition for lifting its two-month aid blockade into the territory.

"It is simply wrong, in principle and in law, to inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population, whatever the circumstances," Mr Martin told the Global Ireland Summit 2025.

"It is also wholly unacceptable to contemplate the mass displacement of people in Gaza or to talk of permanent occupation."

Speaking at the same conference at Dublin Castle, Tánaiste Simon Harris said Ireland would not stand idly by and allow Israel to continue to inflict suffering and starvation on the people of Gaza, saying the current blockade has left him "deeply appalled and sickened".

Humanitarian agencies operating in the region, including UNRWA, must be allowed to carry out their work unimpeded, and challenges to UNRWA's mandate must be resisted, he said.

"In the West Bank, settlement activity is rising, and Israel is conducting its largest military operation in 20 years, which has resulted in the displacement of at least 40,000 people," said Mr Harris.

Both Mr Martin and Mr Harris reiterated Ireland's position that a two-state solution is the only path to creating a lasting peace, and said Ireland would continue working with international partners to reach that goal.

Their comments will add to the already strained relationship between Ireland and Israel which, at the end of last year, saw then Taoiseach Simon Harris branded antisemitic by senior Israeli minister Gideon Saar who also announced that Israel would close its embassy in Dublin in reaction to Ireland's joining of a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Additional reporting from The Guardian