Government must stand firm on Israel's illegal occupation and genocide in Gaza Strip

Each day, we get to a point of horror we thought unimaginable for Gaza, writes Karol Balfe

90,000 women and children desperately need access to care for acute malnutrition. Picture: Majdi Fathi

There are moments in history when silence is complicity. There are moments when the scale of violence, suffering, brutality, and horror is so immense that our very humanity is questioned.

What we are witnessing in Gaza today is one such horrific moment, a genocide that has resulted in the greatest humanitarian catastrophe witnessed since the Second World War.

The haunting images emerging daily from Gaza remind us of stark horrors from the 20th century, horrors that once shocked the world into pledging “never again”.

However, here we are once more. Close to 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, including more than 17,000 innocent children. More than 139,000 have been wounded. Thousands of children have been left orphaned.

Israel has made Gaza a graveyard for children, women, men, medical staff, humanitarian workers, and journalists.

An entire population is being starved. Famine is occurring directly as a result of Israel’s brutal, illegal, and cruel blocking of aid.

The UN has described Gaza as the hungriest place on Earth, the only territory on Earth where the whole population is at risk of famine. Israel has obstructed aid to such a degree that only a drip feed gets into the starving and malnourished population.

On May 19, the Israeli cabinet approved a decision to allow “basic” food into Gaza. A drop in an ocean and the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities continue to prevent the delivery of large-scale humanitarian aid.

The near total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system is severely impacting pregnant women, new mothers, and newborns, depriving them of their rights to maternity healthcare

Israel is weaponising water, continuing to destroy water facilities, and cutting electricity needed to pump water and power desalination plants. Each day, we get to a point of horror we thought unimaginable.

Children bear the brunt of Israel’s genocidal actions. Child malnutrition is surging, doubling since March.

Just as Israel has ensured the almost collapse of the healthcare system, 90,000 women and children desperately need access to care for acute malnutrition. Some 10 children a day are losing one or both limbs. Israel is maiming a generation.

Weaponising humanitarian aid

The shameful Israeli and US-controlled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution point are putting a terrorised population at further risk.

It is, it seems, just another way of killing Palestinians, with nearly 900 desperate and hungry Gazans killed trying to access aid.

UN entities and humanitarian organisations, including ActionAid, have unanimously rejected the scheme.

It violates core humanitarian principles and forces Palestinians into militarised zones to access life-saving assistance. The plan as outlined effectively weaponises humanitarian aid, turning it into a tool of oppression, further entrenching Israeli government control over Gaza, and continuing its long-term displacement and collective punishment of Palestinians there.

Now, another dark and horrifying layer may be added to this devastating humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli government has reportedly proposed setting up an internment camp in the Gaza Strip, a fenced-in zone under military control where thousands of Palestinians would be corralled under surveillance, stripped of freedom, and essentially imprisoned without trial or rights. This would effectively be a concentration camp, and it rightly has provoked widespread outrage with accusations of ethnic cleansing and violations of international law.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the situation has reached a breaking point.

Palestinian families are being displaced, denied access to essential services, and left unprotected. One year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory to be unlawful and ordered its unconditional and rapid withdrawal, Israeli authorities have escalated annexation, settlement expansion, land seizures, and violence, with devastating consequences for Palestinians.

From January to June 2025, Israeli settlers carried out an average of four attacks per day, injuring 340 Palestinians, against 148 during the same period in 2024 — a rise of 130%.

Over 90% of settler violence complaints are closed without indictment

This is the backdrop for the crucial debates that just concluded on the Occupied Territories Bill by the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and trade.

The proposed bill would be a hugely important, but modest, step in accountability for egregious violations of international law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It must include both goods and services.

Those opposing the bill say it will violate US federal law, will damage our standing with the US, and will be bad for Irish business. All arguments that have been eloquently debunked in the committee debates.

The overwhelming majority of companies here have no involvement at all in the illegal Israeli settlements, just as they’re not doing business with Russian entities destroying Ukraine.

Economic impact

The bill is a modest pressure with no evidence to show that it will have a negative economic impact.

Nor does it amount to a boycott of Israel, or a breach of US law, as it only relates to illegal settlements that Israel has taken from Palestinians. The argument that the bill would violate EU law also fell to pieces this week.

In the context of a shamefully weak overall response by the EU to its review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, one measure it did put forward was the ability of states to legislate nationally to ban trade with illegal settlements. Regardless of the above, we must take a stand and hold onto humanity for dear life.

Ireland must hold its nerve, even in the face of opposition from the US

We have obligations under international law. Just like with apartheid South Africa, we must stand against apartheid Israel.

Ireland is not isolated in its action. The emergency summit hosted last week by Colombia and South Africa under the Hague Group framework, which was aimed at co-ordinating multilateral legal, diplomatic, and economic measures to halt Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, was hugely significant.

Delegations from more than 30 countries, as well as UN officials such as special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, attended the summit.

A suite of actions on holding Israel to account are now on the table.

Ireland — please stay strong. To kill, starve, cage, and erase an entire population is genocide. This is so much more than politics. This is about international law. This is about humanity.

• Karol Balfe is CEO of ActionAid Ireland and supports the humanitarian response in Gaza through ActionAid Palestine and partners