Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

condemns and deplores the escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory since 7th October, particularly the killing of innocent men, women and children, the taking hostage and imprisonment of civilians, the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the mass forced displacement of civilians;

notes that: — Ireland is a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC);

— An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, has described "cutting off power, cutting off fuel supplies and water supplies" as "collective punishment", which is prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and has described "targeting civilians and cutting off civilian infrastructure" by Israel as a "breach of international humanitarian law";

— An Tánaiste, Micheál Martin TD, has stated "I believe that what Israel is doing is disproportionate, it's not necessary" and that it "contravenes the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, where the concepts and principles of necessity and proportionality are key";

— the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has stated "I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law";

— the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, has stated "there is no question that Hamas is responsible for crimes, war crimes, and this goes without saying. At the same time, the response that Israel has given doesn't meet international standards either, and I cannot find one provision of international law that has not been violated by Israel as the occupying power, who is acting in the name of self-defence, because even self-defence has limits";

— the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has stated that "cutting water, cutting electricity, cutting food to a mass of civilian people, is against international law";

— the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has stated that "The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law" and that both "the collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians" and "unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians" amount to war crimes;

— the EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano, has highlighted the duty of Israel to protect Palestinians in the West Bank from an "upsurge of settler terrorism";

— the outgoing Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, referred to the situation in Gaza as "a text-book case of genocide";

— seven UN Special Rapporteurs said that they "remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide";

— the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim A. A. Khan KC, has called "upon state parties to the ICC and non-state parties to help collectively vindicate the Geneva Conventions, to help collectively vindicate principles of customary international law and also principles of the Rome Statute, to share evidence regarding any allegations or any crimes so that we can properly investigate them and prosecute them as appropriate"; and

— An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, has stated that a failure to observe humanitarian law cannot be "inconsequential forever" and that "double standards will lead to no standards if not checked"; reiterates its call for immediate ceasefires, for the immediate release of all hostages, and for the unconditional adherence by all parties to their commitments under international law and the UN Charter; and

mandates the Irish Government to exercise Ireland’s right under Article 14, and other relevant articles, of the Rome Statute of the ICC to refer the situation in the State of Palestine to the Prosecutor of the ICC for the purpose of requesting the Prosecutor to investigate any acts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide alleged to have occurred on the territory of Palestine from 7th October, 2023 onwards, including any allegations of current and ongoing crimes occurring within that territory.

There is now an acronym that is ascribed to some children in hospitals in Gaza: WCNSF, wounded child no surviving family. No other term sums up the tragic horrendous human cost of the brutal attacks that Israel is perpetrating against the civilian population of Palestine than that. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to a segment on the RTÉ "Drivetime" radio programme that featured Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, who is a surgeon working in Gaza, and Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan, who is a founder of Gaza Medic Voices. I encourage every Deputy to listen back to their harrowing accounts. Describing the situation in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Dr. Abu Sitta reported:

We are only able to take the most critically wounded life-saving surgeries to the operating room. Everyone else is bandaged up and kept on hospital grounds and there is just no end in sight. We are surrounded by the sound of gunfire and tank fire and air raids and every half hour there is a new influx of wounded brought in by the ambulance service. We set up a field hospital just to figure out who we can help.

Dr. Abdel-Mannan said:

The situation is absolutely horrific. I wake up thinking it cannot get worse and then we hear of atrocities happening that are 100% man-made ... We have heard reports, first-hand eyewitnesses' accounts, that Israeli snipers are firing at nursing staff in a hospital and killing them. We have heard reports of patients trying to flee when there is a moment of peace between bombardment after bombardment and they are shot as they leave the hospital as if they were animals trying to flee.

He set out the context:

This is what happens when you dehumanise a whole population of 2 million people and through the systemic targeting of the population of healthcare facilities and healthcare workers. We have a healthcare system that has collapsed, a result of the direct pressure of displacing 1 million people from the north to the south. We have 5,000 children killed, 1,000 under the rubble.

Referring to Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Abdel-Mannan said:

There were 60,000 people sheltering in that hospital, refugees sitting, sleeping, eating in the hospital grounds, a hospital 500% over its bed capacity. This hospital has been evacuated so I don't know where these people went. I imagine they fled but I imagine a large proportion of them have been killed and that these are the bodies that are lying there.

There are reports, first-hand eyewitness reports, of stray dogs eating the flesh from these bodies.

He also had to respond to the Israeli propaganda that somehow the barbarity inflicted on them is justified because Israel claims these hospitals are Hamas bases:

We, as a medical staff, have been to every one of these hospitals. We have had unfettered access into every single operating theatre and clinic in those buildings. We have never seen anything that amounts to Hamas militant activity.

I suppose it is down to who you believe - those doctors on the ground trying to save the lives of innocent children or the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, which has made those children WCNSF, wounded child no surviving family.

Dr. Ghassan was asked what he expects over the coming days he and his reply was:

Just more of the same in terms of the wounded, more of the same in terms of the sense of helplessness and absolute isolation and a sense of betrayal by a world that seems to have decided to look the other way. [He implored] I am surrounded by families like yours and mine who have had their lives torn apart for the past 37 days. Our shared humanity dictates that people stand up and be counted.

Dr. Abdel-Mannan asked:

What are we teaching our children? How can we, as a collective community of human beings, look at ourselves in the mirror and say to our children and our grandchildren we allowed, in 2023, 2 million Gazans to potentially be wiped off the face of the planet?

What Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta and Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan have described are war crimes. They are calling for ceasefires, as this House rightly has done. However, they are also calling for action to exert pressure on Israel. The Sinn Féin motion is a response to the cries from Gaza. It sets out simply that Ireland will use our voice by referring these heinous acts to the International Criminal Court, ICC. The Government countermotion does not set out a single argument as to why it cannot make this referral and only provides excuses as to why it will not. A referral to the ICC can be made by Ireland and it should be made. There should be no excuses. The Sinn Féin motion should be adopted unanimously as a response from Ireland to the obscenity that is WCNSF, wounded child no surviving family.

See this speech in context