On 10 August, an Israeli airstrike hit a Palestinian school housing displaced families. Reportedly, Israel killed nearly 100 people in the strike. Following this, Irish taoiseach Simon Harris has called for an urgent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Death toll
Harris released a statement which begins:
This weekend has brought the grisly milestone of 40,000 deaths in Gaza a step closer.
A report released by the Lancet in July 2024 estimated that the number of deaths is actually far higher than this. The report stated:
By June 19, 2024, 37 396 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the attack by Hamas and the Israeli invasion in October, 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.
Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of much of the infrastructure. The Ministry has had to augment its usual reporting, based on people dying in its hospitals or brought in dead, with information from reliable media sources and first responders. This change has inevitably degraded the detailed data recorded previously. Consequently, the Gaza Health Ministry now reports separately the number of unidentified bodies among the total death toll. As of May 10, 2024, 30% of the 35 091 deaths were unidentified.
Its estimate was as follows (emphasis added):
In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
“Gut-wrenching”
There is growing evidence of a prolonged humanitarian catastrophe, and I am particularly disturbed by the confirmation this weekend by the United Nations that the number of aid deliveries reaching Gaza has halved, from a daily average of 169 trucks in April to fewer than 80 trucks a day in June and July.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also says that only 24 of 67 planned aid missions to northern Gaza this month have been facilitated by Israel.
The United Nations has also assessed that more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders since October of last year.
When people are told to leave, they have nowhere to go, so they often go to schools.
490 of Gaza’s schools have been bombed or damaged since the start of the war, and this weekend’s images from inside al-Taba’een school are gut-wrenching. Ireland condemns outright such awful and wholesale loss of civilian life.
A ceasefire remains urgently needed, and all sides must immediately work in good faith to bring one about.
We have all been horrified by the many undoubted war crimes that have been committed in Gaza. There can be no impunity. Those responsible must be held to account.
The ICJ orders
Harris’s statement ends:
All the legally binding orders of the ICJ [International Court of Justice] must also be implemented in full.
Too many innocent lives have been lost in 10 months.
The world is standing at the precipice of a horrific moment, and yet all levers to bring an end to the violence are not being used.
I again call for an urgent review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The Agreement contains human rights clauses, and I do not believe it is conscionable for the EU to continue to render them redundant.
Ireland calls for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of Israeli hostages, and for aid trucks to flow unimpeded.
In May 2024, the ICJ published the following conclusions with “measures to be adopted” by Israel:
50. The Court considers that, in conformity with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
51. The Court recalls that, in its Order of 26 January 2024, it ordered Israel, inter alia, to “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of [the Genocide Convention]” (see paragraph 5 above). In the present circumstances, the Court is also of the view that, in order to preserve evidence related to allegations of acts falling within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Genocide Convention, Israel must take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide
The ICJ also drew attention to the orders it made for Israel to cease hostilities on 26 January and 28 March, which it noted are “applicable throughout the Gaza strip”.
Proceedings at the ICJ against Israel were initiated by South Africa, which alleges:
the commission of the following acts with genocidal intent: killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. According to South Africa, genocidal intent is evident from the way in which Israel’s military attack is being conducted, from the clear pattern of conduct of Israel in Gaza and from the statements made by Israeli officials in relation to the military operation in the Gaza Strip. The Applicant also contends that “[t]he intentional failure of the Government of Israel to condemn, prevent and punish such genocidal incitement constitutes in itself a grave violation of the Genocide Convention”.
Featured image via the Canary
