Israel announced on Sunday the closure of its mission in the Irish capital due to what Israel’s foreign minister called “extreme anti-Israeli policies.”
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The Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, described “deeply regrettable” Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin, but said his government would not change its position on the way the war in Gaza is being fought.
Israel announced on Sunday the closure of its mission in the Irish capital due to what Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called “extreme anti-Israeli policies”.
“I will very strongly oppose any attempt by any country to misrepresent Ireland’s position. Ireland is not anti-Israeli, but it is absolutely opposed to the starvation of children, the killing of civilians , peace, international law and human rights”Prime Minister Harris told the press.
“And we have been consistent in our foreign policy position: there must be an immediate ceasefire, the hostages must be released and humanitarian aid must be delivered to the Middle East,” he added.
In his statement on the embassy closure, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that “Ireland has crossed all the red lines in its relations with Israel”.
“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is reduced to a minimum,” Micheál Martin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, said in a statement on Sunday.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the outbreak of war in Gaza last October. Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, that it would recognize a Palestinian state.
Last week, the Irish cabinet decided to formally support South Africa’s complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which Israel denies.
Strikes on Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to pound largely isolated northern Gaza as the Palestinian death toll approached 45,000.
An airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the victims were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter, as well as a father and son, the hospital said.
In Gaza City, at least 17 people, including six women and five children, were killed in three airstrikes that hit homes housing displaced people, according to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.
Another Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Ahmed al-Lawh, in central Gaza, according to the Qatari channel.
The strike hit a Gaza Civil Defense Agency point in the Nuseirat urban refugee camp, Al-Awda Hospital said. Three civil defense employees, including the head of the agency in Nuseirat, were also killed, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Civil Defense is Gaza’s main relief agency and operates under the Hamas government.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other Gaza militants stormed southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
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