Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the June 2024 assessment of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (details supplied) that famine has existed in Gaza since that time. [25668/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he recognises that Israeli officials, over the course of the conflict and blockade, have made repeated public statements indicating an intention to use starvation as a method of warfare against the civilian population of Gaza. [25669/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on whether the blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza over the past 70 days constitutes the use of starvation as a weapon of war and a violation of international humanitarian law. [25671/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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208. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether he supports the establishment of a United Nations-mandated force to ensure the safe delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza. [25672/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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209. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether the Government will consider bringing forward, or supporting, a motion at the United Nations General Assembly, on foot of the Uniting for Peace mechanism, to authorise the deployment of a UN humanitarian protection force to Gaza, given the Security Council's ongoing failure to act. [25673/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 205 to 209, inclusive, together.

As UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk recently made clear, any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime, and so do all forms of collective punishment.

Israel’s continuing blockade of humanitarian and commercial supplies for Gaza is rapidly deepening the hunger crisis in Gaza.

I am gravely concerned by the latest assessment by the IPC global hunger monitor that the entire population of Gaza is facing high levels of food insecurity, with half a million people facing starvation. I am also aware of the important work carried out by Special Rapporteur Fakhri in this field. Ireland welcomed the opportunity to engage with him during his Interactive Dialogue with the UN Third Committee in October 2024.

The obstruction of life-saving aid by Israel is a violation of its international obligations. Ireland has, both bilaterally and at multilateral level, repeatedly called on Israel to comply with international law, stressing the universal applicability of international law, including international humanitarian law.

I am also concerned by Israel’s stated intention to take control of the distribution of humanitarian aid through private contractors. Humanitarian agencies, including UNRWA, must be allowed to operate fully. And we must resist challenges to UNRWA’s mandate that threaten the integrity of the international system.

As I have consistently made clear, Ireland is using all the tools at our disposal - political, legal, diplomatic and humanitarian - in response to this dreadful conflict.

At the level of the United Nations, a key focus of our efforts is currently on the forthcoming High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the two-State Solution, which will take place in New York in June of this year and will be co-chaired by France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This UN Conference under the auspices of the General Assembly will provide an opportunity to advance discussions on concrete initiatives towards implementing the two-State solution such as implementation of the Arab Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza, including addressing the need for security arrangements on the ground that respect Palestinian sovereignty and take account of Israeli security needs.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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210. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if, given Ireland's historical experience of famine as a tool of genocide and its weaponisation against a civilian population, and the enduring intergenerational impacts of that trauma, the Government will propose the codification of famine as a distinct crime under international law and seek to advance that objective within the United Nations system. [25674/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has consistently used its voice at the UN and other international fora, to promote the protection of civilians in conflict, humanitarian access to those in need of assistance, and the fight against impunity. We view the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the key institution for pursuing accountability for the perpetrators for the most serious crimes of international concern. The ICC was established by the 1998 Rome Statute, which grants the Court jurisdiction over four core international crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

While famine itself may occur for a number of reasons including (but not limited to) criminal acts, under the Rome Statute a number of criminal acts acts in which starvation may be a material element do come within the jurisdiction of the ICC. These crimes include:

• the crime of genocide by means of deliberately inflicting on a national, ethnical, racial or religious group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part where the intent is to destroy that group in whole or in part;
• the crime against humanity of an inhumane act committed with knowledge, as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health; and
• the war crime of the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in an international armed conflict.