Israel said on Sunday it would close its embassy in Ireland as relations worsened over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials said new Israeli air strikes had killed over 30 people, including several children.
The decision to close the embassy in Dublin came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies”. In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, announced it would recognize a Palestinian state.
The Irish Cabinet decided last week to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies the allegations.
“We fear that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide will lead to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Michael Martin said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s statement on the embassy closure said: “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris described the decision to close the embassy as “deeply regrettable”. He added to X: “I strongly reject the claim that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is for peace, for human rights and for international law.”
Children, journalist killed in Gaza
Israeli forces continued to bombard the largely isolated northern Gaza Strip on Sunday as the Palestinian death toll in the war reached 45,000.
An airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida School in the city of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 15 people, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, where there were injuries.
The dead included two parents and their daughter and a father and his son, the hospital said.
At least 17 people, including six women and five children, were killed in three airstrikes on houses housing displaced people in Gaza City, according to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said a bandaged Yahia al-Yazji, mourning his wife and daughter. He added that his wife was three months pregnant.
The Israeli military said in a statement it attacked a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.
Another Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Qatar-based hospital and television station Ahmed al-Lawh said.
The attack hit a juncture for Gaza’s Civil Defense Authority in the city’s Nuseirat refugee camp, Al-Awda Hospital said. According to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, three civil defense personnel were also killed, including the head of the agency in Nuseirat. Civil Defense is Gaza’s main rescue organization and reports to the Hamas-led government.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other Gaza militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
