Taoiseach Micheál Martin has stated that the global community is “shocked by what is happening in Gaza” as over 100 aid agencies have warned that “mass starvation” is now taking hold across the Palestinian enclave, reports RTE.
During an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Martin described the situation in Gaza as “beyond any comprehension” and called the scenes emerging from the region “horrific”.
“It’s a stain on Israel at this stage. It’s a shame that any government would continue a war that is wreaking such devastation on poor children and innocent children at the scale and level that is happening,” he said, reports RTE.
The Taoiseach urged for a “massive surge” in humanitarian assistance to be delivered into Gaza, also expressing serious concern over efforts to discredit the UN and aid agencies.
Israel is under growing scrutiny internationally as the humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza, where over two million people are now experiencing extreme shortages of food and essentials after 21 months of war, reports RTE.
According to the UN, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to access food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in late May, effectively sidelining the existing UN-led efforts.
Elsewhere, a senior figure from a humanitarian agency working in Gaza said the failure of Western governments to act diplomatically against Israel has been “astounding”, reports RTE.
Jan Egeland, General Secretary of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the crisis in Gaza reflects a “stain on the Western conscience,” blaming nations that have supported Israel throughout this phase of the conflict.
Speaking on the same programme, Mr Egeland revealed that his organisation has been unable to move even a single truck into Gaza for 146 days, reports RTE.
“And we have enormous quantities of relief, paid by European donors standing at the gates of Gaza. But the Israeli war machine prevents us from going in while they are bombing the civilian population,” reports RTE.
Mr Egeland described the crisis as “intolerable,” saying aid workers are “denied coming to the relief of starving babies” and prevented from providing care to the injured and delivering food and clean water to civilians.
He said the establishment of a humanitarian corridor would be “better than nothing,” but stressed that the only viable solution is a full ceasefire and the reopening of all entry points, reports RTE.
Mr Egeland said that immediate entry for humanitarian groups into Gaza is the “only hope”.
“From the NGOs, the UN and the Red Cross and Red Crescent. To help these two million people. They are dying, babies are dying every day from starvation. That’s the only hope now,” reports RTE.
He added that while countries like Ireland, Norway, and Spain have taken stronger stances than others, they need to influence the more powerful Western allies who continue to back Israel.
“So, tell Trump. Ireland has a voice in Washington. That’s where you have to work,” he said, reports RTE.
A joint statement endorsed by 111 organisations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.
The aid groups urged an immediate ceasefire through negotiation, full access through all land crossings, and unrestricted aid flow via UN-led systems, reports RTE.
In the statement, the groups noted that warehouses full of supplies are stuck just outside or even inside Gaza, inaccessible due to ongoing blockades.
“Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,” the signatories said, reports RTE.
“It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,” they added, reports RTE.
“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access,” reports RTE.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the devastation facing Palestinians in Gaza as a result of Israeli military operations unlike anything seen in recent times.
The director of Gaza’s largest hospital reported that 21 children have died from hunger and malnutrition over the last three days alone.
Israel and Hamas have been engaged in stalled negotiations in Doha since July 6, with mediators attempting to end nearly two years of hostilities, reports RTE.
But despite more than two weeks of mediation, the efforts by Qatar, Egypt, and the US remain stuck without progress.
Recently, over two dozen Western governments called for an immediate halt to the fighting, declaring that the suffering in Gaza had “reached new depths”, reports RTE.
This coincides with a US announcement that envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe for Gaza-related discussions and may then proceed to the Middle East.
Mr Witkoff carries “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” according to US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, reports RTE.
According to health authorities in Gaza, Israeli military actions have now claimed 59,106 Palestinian lives in the current stage of the conflict, the majority of whom were civilians.
Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 resulted in 1,219 deaths, also mostly civilians, based on official figures compiled by AFP, reports RTE.
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