"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

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    1 year 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.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, but it’s not like US or China that funds their own military.

      If UN members flat out said these actions mean they can no longer fund Israels military…

      Israel might be able to coast for a couple months, but they’d immediately know they’re on a countdown clock.

      They’d either have to make a legitimate push for peace, or try to placate their former donors. Which in that case would be the same thing.

    • filister@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There is a reason they are not members of the ICC, because they don’t want to be held accountable for their war crimes.

    • Pasta4u@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Didn’t the hamas attack target civilians?

      So what did international law due to punish them ? Nothing ?

      Then I guess Isreal has nothing to worry about

      • Why9@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So what did international law due to punish them ? Nothing ?

        I think allowing the fourth largest military power in the world to drop hundreds of bombs, kill civilians - many of them children, and force them to flee from their homes so they can grab even more land, and still have nations within the UN who are punished for even trying to speak out against it is plenty.

        How much more do you want?

        The fact that Israel has gone this far isn’t enough for you? Is genocide really where you’ll call it even?

        • Pasta4u@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So I think.iseral paid.enough with terrorists attacking music festivals , raping and killing women and children .

          Guess international law doesn’t matter right ?

          • Why9@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Holy moly that’s a bold statement!!

            If that’s what it takes for Israel to have paid enough then why isn’t it enough for Palestine to deal with this extremely exaggerated offensive after decades of having their homes stolen and families murdered? Sure, Israel absolutely paid a heavy price. But at the hands of Israel, this has been daily life in Palestine for decades.

            And international law doesn’t matter? When has it mattered at all to Israel what international law is? The international laws it’s broken in the last week alone is absolutely horrific.

            If you’re really unbiased, please take a look at what Israel is really doing. What they’re doing is genocide. It’s ethnic cleansing. It’s apartheid. After WWII, you’d think that Israel would know better than anyone how horrifying those words are, and vow to never have such words repeated, let alone be the ones committing them.

            • Pasta4u@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Why not just pull up every encounter between Isreal and Gaza and figure out how many lives each side gets to take and then no kne speaks of it again ?

              Doesn’t matter there won’t be a Gaza left soon enough

    • dumdum666@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

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

  • Heratiki@lemmy.ml
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    1 year 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.

    • Striker@lemmy.worldOP
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      Yup. Can’t understand why UN weapons inspectors allow Israel to have white phosphorus.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 year 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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          1 year 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.

    • keardap@lemmy.selfhost.quest
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      Source for white phosphorus bombs or it didn’t happen. Israel uses it for smoke and flares, not for burning people.

  • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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.

    • Amaltheamannen@lemmy.ml
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      1 year 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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        1 year 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.