"Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Israel’s decision to cut off electricity, water and food supplies into Gaza is “not acceptable”. Mr Varadkar also said that due to Israel “targeting civilians and cutting off civilian infrastructure” they were in “breach of international humanitarian law”.

More than 6,000 bombs have reportedly been dropped on Gaza in the past six days and more than 1,500 civilians have died in the region.

This bombardment and siege of Gaza comes after the deadliest attack in Israeli history when Hamas militants crossed into Israel and killed more than 1,200 civilians while taking hostages back to the Gaza strip.

“Well, I believe Israel has the right to defend itself. But Israel doesn’t have the right to do wrong. What do I mean by that? Israel is a country that is surrounded by enemies, brutal savage groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, countries like Iran, often supported by Islamic fundamentalists and anti Semites around the world. So Israel is under threat.

“They do have a right to defend themselves, but they don’t have the right to breach international humanitarian law. And I’m really concerned about what I’m seeing happening in Gaza at the moment,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told RTÉ’s Prime Time."

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/leo-varadkar-israel-breaching-international-law-by-targeting-civilians-and-cutting-off-electricity-and-water/a312922250.html

  • Heratiki
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    139 months ago

    Not to mention using white phosphorus bombs as well. I’m not for either side but it’s time Israel is held accountable for war crimes.

    • StrikerOP
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      209 months ago

      Yup. Can’t understand why UN weapons inspectors allow Israel to have white phosphorus.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        249 months ago

        Because of bullshit.

        You can use them as a “smoke or flash device”.

        Same way cops can throw smoke/flash grenades that are known to start fires into a house. They can’t say they’re throwing them to start a fire, but if there’s a 10% they start a fire, they’ll throw 11 of them.

        Gaza is a densely populated as LA, you’re not shooting an artillery/bomb worth of it and not hitting a flammable structure. But it’s really hard to prove it was used to intentionally start fires.

        • @magikmw@lemm.ee
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          129 months ago

          Fire is the least of problems with white phosphorus. Chemical burns, toxic fumes… You don’t care everything is on fire when everything around you is hell.

      • @crackajack@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        I don’t know if Israel indeed used white phosphorus. But whether if it is true or not, why would Israel use white phosphorus for smoke covers when there are smoke shells and flares aplenty? Why do I feel like we’re arguing with moral sophistry again, like how how both sides justified using gas chemicals in World War I with “we fired them on open ground not at the troops. It’s not our fault if the wind blows the chemicals onto the enemy trenches.” Are people that naive to think that Israel won’t use white phosphorus on the Palestinian side, if Israel seriously considered the use? Or is there intentional misinformation on this?

  • @Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    19 months ago

    I’m glad he made this statement, I don’t believe anything he says is genuine but I’m still glad he made this statement.

  • Jaysyn
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    09 months ago

    As we’ve already seen with #Ruzzia, “International Law” is completely toothless and is certainly not going to stop the 4th largest military in the world from doing exactly what it wants to do.

    Don’t hold your breath waiting on The Hague to do a damn thing either.

    • dumdum666
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      -19 months ago

      Where are the public calls of powerful Muslim countries for moderation? I haven’t read anything about them.

    • @NewDark
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      209 months ago

      It’s closer to 80 years old, just after WW2 with the zionist movement.

    • @Amaltheamannen@lemmy.ml
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      199 months ago

      Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together without conflict for most of those thousands of years. With a few exceptions like the Crusades, which was mostly the Christians fault.

      The idea that the current conflict is complex, ancient and impossible to understand is Israeli propoganda to make most people afraid to be wrong rater than rightfully criticize them.

      • @fruitleatherpostcard@lemm.ee
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        -19 months ago

        The history of the Middle East consists of seemingly nothing but bloody conflict for as far back as anyone knows and beyond past any records.

        I do not support the current conflict or think that it’s somehow ‘meant to be’.

        It would be lovely if various groups stopped being such shits to each other and just lived together without acrimonious arseholery, but people are pathetic, greedy and on the whole rather stupid. This goes for anywhere on the planet.

        Never mind. This too shall pass. Humanity’s reign is not going to last for many more centuries. Plants will grow over the bones of our so-called civilisations, and what other animals survive will repopulate and evolve into new diversity to refill the ecological gaps vacated by our extinction-level spread of death.