Israel targeting hospitals and doctors in Palestine 'part of the genocide', Helen McEntee told

Scores of injured people arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital following an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza which killed over 500 people on October 17, 2023. Picture: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty  

Irish healthcare workers have warned that Israel's targeting of doctors and hospitals in Palestine is “part of the genocide”.

As they handed in a letter to Government Buildings for foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee, Irish Health Care Workers for Palestine called for Ireland to ensure the EU-Israel Association is suspended during its six-month EU presidency. 

The EU-Israel Association is the framework which governs trade, economic co-operation, and political dialogue between the two regions. The Irish Government has consistently called for the EU to suspend this agreement.

Irish Health Care Workers for Palestine told Ms McEntee they were calling upon her to “respond to the situation of Palestinian healthcare professionals from Gaza who have been arrested and detained in Israeli prisons and insist that their detention and treatment is reviewed immediately by the EU”.

One of the cases raised in the Irish healthcare workers' letter is that of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was arrested by the Israeli army in December 2024. Picture: Front Line Defenders

The group expressed its “deepest concerns regarding the use of arbitrary detention, torture, and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment inflicted upon them”.

It raised the cases of Dr Adnan Al Bursh, head of orthopaedic surgery at Al-Shifa Hospital, who died in an Israeli prison in April 2024, and Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was arrested by the Israeli army in December 2024.

Amnesty International has said Dr Abu Safiya is being detained “without charges or trial” under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants’ Law.

He is one of 83 Palestinian healthcare professionals who were detained in April 2026, according to Healthcare Workers Watch. Some six healthcare workers have died in detention.

Also today, Sean Marmion and Helen Mahony of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Amnesty International Ireland director Stephen Bowen were at Government Buildings where they handed in a letter protesting the Central Bank’s involvement in the sale of Israeli bonds. Picture: Conor Ó Mearáin/Collins 

In their letter to Ms McEntee, Irish Health Care Workers for Palestine called on her to “lead the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement”.

Dr Aoife Twohig told the Irish Examiner that the letter was being presented in “solidarity with all healthcare workers”.

“It's actually part of the genocide to destroy the healthcare system, to take away the very people who can actually support the Palestinian people in their recovery,” she said.

“Actually, we see this very much [as part of] the approach that the Israeli government has taken.

Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya walking towards Israeli army tanks prior to his arrest in 2024. Picture: @muhannad_almuqayed

At Farmleigh House, meanwhile, German chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters following a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin that he believes that “general sanctions against Israel are the wrong way forward”.

He acknowledged that Ireland and Germany are at odds on this, but that Germany has a “special relation to the state of Israel” and “will not join sanctions against Israel”.

“We don't want to. We won't do it. We cannot do it, and this will continue to be the case for the time being,” he added.

The Taoiseach branded recent “violent attacks” on schools and farming communities in the West Bank as “outrageous”.

• Louise Burne, Political Correspondent

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