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Tánaiste Micheál Martin has appealed to Israel to “show humanity” and allow more aid into Gaza amid a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Mr Martin made the comments at an event in Dublin with EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic.
Mr Lenarcic described the conditions in Gaza as “a man made disaster”.
The United Nations said that a quarter of the region’s 2.3 million people faced starvation and around 80% had fled their homes since Israel launched its military campaign.
The UN’s top court ordered Israel to take measures to open more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza to tackle shortages in the enclave.
The International Court of Justice issued two new so called provisional measures as part of a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.
“Fundamentally, it’s about trucks getting in over the borders and the land crossings,” Mr Martin said.
He added, “Nothing can get away from the fact that what would really have an immediate impact is really a proper flow of aid through the land routes.
“It is criminal, it is absolutely a scandal that children are malnourished, that half the population are facing famine, and others in terms of insecurity. There is no need for this.
“There’s excessive checking at the borders. And I spoke this morning to Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister in Jordan, I spoke to Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry yesterday, and I spoke to the Palestinian prime minister yesterday also.
“They’re telling me the situation is dire, absolutely catastrophic. And I would appeal to Israel to show humanity in terms of enabling the essentials of life to get into Gaza for the civilian population”.
Mr Lenarcic said the EU was doing everything they could and was supporting humanitarian aid air drops, which he said were “inefficient and sometimes dangerous”.
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