At UN, Ireland says Israel’s actions in Gaza ‘an abandonment of all norms’

Addressing the UN General Assembly shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin called Israel’s actions in Gaza “an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law.”

“What is happening in Gaza cannot be justified or defended. It is an affront to human dignity and decency. It is an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law,” he says.

Ireland, which recognized a Palestinian state last year, has been one of the countries most critical of Israel.

Martin accuses Israel of weaponizing hunger.

“Babies starving to death while aid rots at the border, people shot while desperately seeking food for their families,” he says, repeating accusations that Israel is committing genocide.

Martin says that while Hamas “must answer for its crimes” and have “no role in the future governance of Palestine, but no crime, however heinous, can justify genocide.”

Israel strenuously rejects accusations of genocide and says hunger in Gaza is caused by the failure of UN agencies to deliver it, along with Hamas looting.