Ireland has said it will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, in the strongest signal yet of Dublin’s concern about the war in Gaza.
Foreign Minister, Micheal Martin announcing the move, said that while it was for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to decide whether genocide was being committed, he wanted to be clear that Hamas’s October 7 attack and current events in Gaza represent the “blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale”.
Martin said in a statement: “The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population,”
Martin also said the situation “could not be starker”, adding that Ireland decided to make the move following legal and policy analysis and consultation with several partners, including South Africa.
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