The Irish Independent's View: If we thought the war on Gaza could not be escalated any further, Benjamin Netanyahu is proving us wrong
Aid agencies say many people have already been forced to flee several times. But they no longer have food, means of transport or a safe place to go.
Apart from the anticipated wave of international alarm, Netanyahu's plan for a deeper military push into Gaza has brought warnings from the Israeli military's leadership, and fierce criticism from families of the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
Concerns that more Palestinians will inevitably be killed were raised by UK prime minister Keir Starmer. Even Germany, one of Israel's staunchest allies and one of its largest suppliers of arms, has said it is suspending military exports over the move.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government remained deeply concerned about the ongoing suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Moves by France, the UK and Canada to recognise a Palestinian state had added pressure on Berlin.
But Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid also attacked the plan, saying it will lead 'to many more disasters'. He said it was 'a surrender' to Netanyahu's far-right coalition members 'in complete contradiction to the opinion of the military'.
Those surveying the devastation and deprivation in Gaza would have thought it unimaginable that there could be any way to further escalate a conflict that has already turned the enclave into a living hell, with the death toll passing 61,000 this week.
Israel has already been plunged into international isolation over the spiralling humanitarian cost of the war. The Netherlands has revoked permits for the export of naval ship components to Israel, while Turkey condemned the new offensive and called on the UN to prevent its implementation.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, EU Council president Antonio Costa said the move to take over Gaza City 'must have consequences for EU-Israel relations'.
In Gaza City, the BBC quoted a Dr Hatem Qanoua who said: 'I'm very afraid for my children and all the innocent people who may die. They've only known death and destruction.'
Since the start of this year, at least 99 people, including 29 children under the age of five, have died of malnutrition, according to the World Health Organisation, which says its figures are likely underestimates.
Mr Netanyahu has turned a deaf ear to the world, but the words of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel demand attention: 'I don't think I should accept other people's suffering because I suffered. Just the opposite: because I suffered, I don't want others to suffer.'
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The Journal
9 minutes ago
- The Journal
U2 jointly condemn Israel over Gaza as Bono admits his past statements 'circled the subject'
U2 HAVE CONDEMNED the Israeli government for their actions in Gaza, as Bono admits to 'circling the subject' of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the time since the 7 October attack. In a series of lengthy statements posted to social media , the four members of the band individually set out their stances on the war raging within Gaza. 'Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza – but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory,' the post of their statements was captioned. 'We are not experts in the politics of the region, but we want our audience to know where we each stand.' Bono's statement, which covered ten slides, admitted that he had circled around the issue of speaking out on Israel's actions in Gaza. Condemning the 7 October terror attack by Hamas on the Nova music festival in Gaza, he reiterated that he believes in Israel's 'right to exist' and a two-state solution. In recent years, Bono has attracted heavy criticism over his silence on Gaza. Last year, he angered a number of his peers when he accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-US President Joe Biden. Actor and musician Steve Wall was among those who slammed Bono's decision to accept the medal from Biden , who was the subject of opposition and derision over the US facilitating Israel's war on Gaza. Advertisement Bono later went on to defend his decision in an interview with Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1. He said that he had a longstanding relationship with Biden and had accepted the medal of behalf of activists and people being killed within Gaza. In May, he called for Israel to be 'released' from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an awards show. Today, Bono wrote that he had felt he should focus on poverty and the humanitarian crisis occurring within Africa, and said that he felt countries like Sudan were overlooked in their suffering. As Israel intensified its attack on Gaza, Bono said that he reminded himself of Hamas's crimes that had preceded this. 'I hoped Israel would return to reason,' he wrote. 'I was making excuses for a people seared and shaped by the experience of the Holocaust… which understood the threat of extermination is not simply a fear but a fact.' He said that he understands that 'Hamas are not the Palestinian people', who have undergone oppression, occupation, and 'the systemic stealing of the land that is rightfully theirs'. He added that he can see the parallels between the historic occupation of Ireland and the occupation of Gaza: 'It's little wonder so many here in Ireland have campaigned for decades for justice for the Palestinian people'. The U2 frontman said that the band condemns Netanyahu's Israel government. Shorter statements from the three other band members took the same stance. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
11 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
U2 condemns Israeli government for starving Gazans as a ‘weapon of war' in joint statement
The band's frontman, Bono – who is known for his humanitarian work and outspoken views on social justice – said he had previously tried to 'stay out of Middle Eastern Politics' and admitted to previously 'circling the subject' of the Israel-Hamas war since October 7, 2023. "Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza - but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory,' the band said. In separate statements issued on the band's social media and website on Sunday, they each condemned the prolonged suffering of Gazans and Israeli hostages in Gaza. 'I have generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East... this was not humility, more uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity... I have over recent months written about the war in Gaza in The Atlantic and spoken about it in The Observer, but I circled the subject,' Bono said. 'The images of starving children on the Gaza Strip brought me back to a working trip to a food station in Ethiopia my wife Ali and I made 40 years ago next month following U2's participation in Live Aid 1985. Another man-made famine. 'To witness chronic malnutrition up close would make it personal for any family, especially as it affects children. Because when the loss of non-combatant life en masse appears so calculated… especially the deaths of children, then 'evil' is not a hyperbolic adjective… in the sacred text of Jew, Christian, and Muslim it is an evil that must be resisted'. Bono goes on to criticise Hamas for attacking innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023, in an attack that led to the deaths of 1,200 Israelis and saw more than 250 hostages taken into Gaza. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content 'But I also understood that Hamas are not the Palestinian people… a people who have for decades endured and continue to endure marginalisation, oppression, occupation, and the systematic stealing of the land that is rightfully theirs. Given our own historic experience of oppression and occupation, it's little wonder so many here in Ireland have campaigned for decades for justice for the Palestinian people. 'We know Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel and I feel revulsion for the moral failure. The Government of Israel is not the nation of Israel, but the Government of Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu today deserves our categorical and unequivocal condemnation. There is no justification for the brutality he and his far right government have inflicted on the Palestinian people… in Gaza… in the West Bank. And not just since October 7, well before it too… though the level of depravity and lawlessness we are seeing now feels like uncharted territory,' Bono said. The U2 frontman then goes on to say that he has long believed in "Israel's right to exist and supported a two-state solution,' but also wants to 'make clear to anyone who cares to listen our band's condemnation of Netanyahu's immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides'. ADVERTISEMENT The statement comes after Ireland along with Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, signed a letter condemning plans for Israel's expansion of military aggression on Gaza. The letter states that the countries 'strongly condemn the recent announcement of the intensification of the occupation and the military offensive, including in Gaza city.' 'This decision will only deepen the humanitarian crisis and further endanger the remaining hostages' lives. This operation will lead to an unacceptable high toll of deaths and the forced displacement of nearly one million Palestinian civilians,' it adds. Benjamin Netanyahu again blamed many of Gaza's problems on the Hamas militant group on Sunday, including civilian deaths, destruction and shortages of aid. Mr Netanyahu pushed back against what he calls a 'global campaign of lies' as condemnation of the plan grows both inside and outside Israel. The Edge, in his statement, said that what is occurring in Gaza is a 'test of our shared humanity'. 'I have three questions for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I ask them in the hope of engaging the conscience and sanity of the people of Israel. First: Do you truly believe that such devastation—inflicted so intentionally and relentlessly on a civilian population—can happen without heaping generational shame upon those responsible? Do you not see that the longer this continues, the more Israel risks becoming isolated, mistrusted, and remembered not as a haven from persecution, but as a state that, when provoked, systematically persecuted a neighbouring civilian population? 'Second: If the end goal is, as the Likud platform suggests, the removal of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to make way for a 'Greater Israel,' then that is not peace—it is dispossession; it is ethnic cleansing, and, according to many legal scholars, colonial genocide. It is an injustice on a massive scale. And injustice, as we learned in Ireland, is never the path to security: it breeds resentment, it hardens hearts, and it guarantees that future generations will inherit conflict rather than peace. The oppressed do not forget. How can this course of action possibly make your people safer? 'Third: If you reject the two-state solution—as your government now openly does—then what is your political vision? Simply perpetual conflict? A future of walls, blockades, military occupation? A state of permanent inequality? And if this apartheid state transpires don't you destroy the very argument for Israel's existence as a moral response to the horrors of the Holocaust? For if Israel comes to be seen as a state that systematically denies another people their rights, then the world will inevitably ask whether the only just and sustainable future, the only tolerable future, is a shared state—one where Jews and Palestinians live together as equals under the law. We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not made through dominance. Peace is made when people sit down with their opponents—when they recognise the equal dignity of all, even those they once feared or despised'. Adam Clayton said that the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel's aid blockade and bombing looks like 'revenge on a civilian population who are not responsible for Hamas' murderous attack on October 7'. "If Israel moves to colonise the Gaza Strip, it will permanently undo any possibility of lasting peace or solution for hostilities. 'Preserving civilian life is a choice in this war'. Larry Mullen said that after the 'slaughter' of innocent Israelis, including music fans that were murdered at the Nova Music Festival on the morning of the Hamas attack, Israel's response and a ground war was 'expected' but the 'indiscriminate decimation of most homes and hospitals in Gaza, with a majority of those killed being women and children, was not expected. "Imposing famine was not expected. 'It's difficult to comprehend how any civilised society can think starving children is going to further any cause and be justified as an acceptable response to another horror. To state the obvious, starving innocent civilians as a weapon of war is inhumane and criminal. 'Where is the outrage from within Israel, outside of a small, if increasingly vocal, minority? 'Where is the outrage from the diaspora? 'Beyond some reluctant and muted acknowledgement of a famine inflicted, nothing. 'Silence. 'The power to change this obscenity is in the hands of Israel 'I undoubtedly support Israel's right to exist and I also believe Palestinians deserve the same right and a state of their own. 'Silence serves none of us,' Mullen said.
The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Netanyahu vows Israel will ‘free Gaza from Hamas' as he doubles down & say his plan is ‘best option to end war'
Read about the PM's plans for Gaza below IRON MARCH Netanyahu vows Israel will 'free Gaza from Hamas' as he doubles down & say his plan is 'best option to end war' BENJAMIN Netanyahu has vowed to "free Gaza from Hamas" thugs once and for all as he details Israel's latest plan. The defiant prime minister has accused the terror group of refusing to "lay down its arms" - leaving Israel "no choice but to finish the job". Advertisement 4 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem Credit: Reuters 4 The defiant prime minister has accused the terror group of refusing to 'lay down its arms' - leaving Israel 'no choice but to finish the job' Credit: AFP 4 Netanyahu warned of Hamas' lies Credit: AP Netanyahu says his plan to eradicate Hamas is the 'best option to end war' despite increasing global pressure to stop the fighting. The plan would see the IDF 'dismantle' the two remaining Hamas strongholds in the central camps in Al Mawasi and Gaza City. Israel has already announced plans to takeover Gaza City with them warning civilians to evacuate immediately. Netanyahu announced: 'We have about 70 to 75 per cent of Gaza under Israeli control, military control. Advertisement 'Last Thursday, Israel's cabinet, Israel's security cabinet, instructed the IDF to dismantle the two remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps." He added this is "the best way to end the war'. After Hamas is wiped out and Gaza becomes demilitarised, the PM says Israel will maintain "security responsibility'. A "non-Israeli civilian administration" will be established in Gaza within 24 hours, he added. Advertisement Israel's cabinet also signed off on five guiding principles to conclude the war this week. Included a roadmap that leaves no room for compromise with Hamas. First is the complete disarmament of Hamas. Israel has made it clear that the terrorist group must be stripped of its weapons entirely - not just weakened, but dismantled - to prevent any future attacks on Israeli civilians. Advertisement This includes weapons factories and underground tunnels that have turned Gaza into a launchpad for attacks. The 22-month war has left tens of thousands dead after Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on October 7. They took 251 hostages during the assault with 49 still being held in Gaza - including 27 who the IDF say are dead. The return of all hostages, both living and dead, is also a non-negotiable pillar of the plan. Advertisement Israeli leaders have stressed that no resolution will be accepted unless it includes the safe return of every captive held in Gaza. Another goal is to create a buffer zone of peace, free from rockets, terrorists and threats.
