Israel to close Ireland embassy over Gaza tensions as Palestinian death toll nears 45K

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 46 people including several children.

The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state.

The Irish Cabinet last week decided 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 it.

“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” said Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Micheal Martin.

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 called the decision to close the embassy “deeply regrettable.” He added on X: “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill a journalist and children

Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.

A large explosion lit up the southern Gaza skyline on Sunday night. An Israeli airstrike hit a school and killed at least 16 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken. There was no immediate Israeli military statement.

In the north, an airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where casualties were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter and a father and his son, the hospital said.

And in Gaza City, at least 17 people including six women and five children were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, 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, who grieved for his wife and daughter. “I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone. My wife was three months pregnant.” His hand rested on a body wrapped in a blanket on the floor.

Israel’s military in a statement said it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.

Another Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Ahmed al-Lawh, in central Gaza, a hospital and the Qatari-based TV station said.

The strike hit a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, Al-Awda Hospital said. Also killed were three civil defense workers including the local head of the agency, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.

One of the bodies was covered with an orange work jacket marked “ambulance” in English.

“We, the civil defense, are carrying out humanitarian work like in any country in the world. Why are we being targeted?” said colleague Kerem Al Dalou.

Israel’s military said it struck a militant command center embedded in the civil defense offices.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking well over 200 hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says over half of the dead have been women and children.

Most of Gaza’s population of over 2 million has been displaced, often multiple times. The hospitals that are still functioning say they lack medicines, fuel and other basic supplies, while aid groups warn of widespread hunger.

The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told CBS on Sunday that the U.N. agency was able to get just two trucks of supplies into Gaza in November, citing insecurity there.

“We need a ceasefire, and we need it now,” she said. “We can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death.”