Letters

Israel-Hamas conflict

The human impact can be hard to grasp

Sat Oct 28 2023 - 05:00

Sir, – On October 7th, Hamas carried out horrific war crimes. These crimes must be condemned outright and the perpetrators held to account.

The answer to war crimes should never be more war crimes, but this is what is happening.

Israel is carrying out collective punishment of a civilian population at a scale and with an intensity that is deeply shocking. It is illegal under international law to target civilians or the infrastructure they rely on.

But for the past three weeks, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip. No-one is safe anywhere in Gaza.

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Most people are fully aware of this information, but the human impact can be hard to grasp. For me, however, it is desperately clear.

Every day, the minute I wake up, I check my phone to see if there are reports of bombings and deaths in the parts of the Gaza Strip where I know my two colleagues, Hala or Reema, have sought shelter.

I check my phone for texts, dreading bad news. Relief when I see a text from either of them, usually turns to horror when I see what they have said.

Hala, mother of three, sent me a text after 10 days of bombing: “As a mother I am praying for two things as I know death is getting very close to me. My wish is to die before my kids and not see them die in front of my eyes when I can’t protect them. The second wish is to die quickly, without suffering under the rubble.”

I know why she says this. 18 months ago, I was in Gaza with Hala and Reema. We visited a man who lost his wife and three children when his apartment block was bombed in the middle of the night in the 2021 war. He described being trapped under the rubble for 12 hours. For the first few hours, he could hear his children crying out to him, asking him to save them. When their voices fell silent, he knew they were dead. He lives with his one surviving daughter and a world of pain and trauma.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in Gaza, and 1,400 in Israel, in the last three weeks, each one leaving family members who will never, ever recover.

The rules of war exist to protect civilians and no-one has the right to violate them.

The situation in Gaza cannot continue.

There needs to be an immediate ceasefire, full access to humanitarian aid, release of hostages and the holding to account of all those deemed to have committed war crimes under international law. – Yours, etc,

CAOIMHE DE BARRA,

CEO Trócaire,

Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Sir, – On Wednesday night, Wael Dahdouh, a steady face of wartime news out of Gaza for Al Jazeera, learned that the strikes he had covered from the ground all day had claimed the lives of his wife, teenage son, daughter and grandson. The journalist’s family was killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Dahdouh’s family had left northern Gaza after Israel ordered more than one million Palestinians in Gaza to leave the area ahead of an expected ground invasion. They moved to Nuseirat, which is among the areas Israel said would be considered safe zones.

There are no safe zones in Gaza, everyone in Gaza is a target. It is war against people, against civilians.

This is how Israel “defends” itself and its decades-long military occupation of Palestine. This is the “defence” that western governments support. – Yours, etc,

COLM O’BRIEN,

Tuamgraney,

Co Clare.

Sir – The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, specifies that ambassadors are diplomats of the highest rank, formally representing their head of state, with plenipotentiary powers to represent their government. The role of ambassadors in times of peace tends to be symbolic dealing with matters of economics, culture, visas, etc.

In times of war the role of ambassadors is far more important. When the conflict in Ukraine deteriorated seriously in February 2022, there were calls for the Russian ambassador to be expelled. In recent days, similar calls have been made by politicians and others to expel the Israeli ambassador.

Expelling ambassadors in time of war is a serious mistake. While we may not like the ambassadors in question and we may not like or agree with the actions of their governments, it is vital to keep diplomatic lines of communication open at such critically important times.

Neutral countries especially should be playing an important role in promoting a ceasefire and negotiations to those conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Sahel region in Africa, and elsewhere.

The ambassadors of these countries are vital especially if efforts are being made to end the conflicts, but also to help protect Ireland’s interests and the interests of Irish citizens who may be endangered by the conflicts. Ambassadors are the most important element in the international diplomatic system and provide a vital communications system in times of crises. “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” – Yours, etc,

EDWARD HORGAN,

Castletroy,

Limerick.

Sir, – Justine McCarthy’s article, “Children being slaughtered in Gaza are nobody’s enemy” (Opinion & Analysis, October 27th), went a long way in encapsulating the extent of the unimaginable hurt and anguish being experienced by the 2.2 million people trapped in Gaza. The question she posed, “How many men, women and children must be killed in Gaza to shock consciences in Washington, Paris, Berlin, London and Brussels?”, was especially relevant. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL CULLEN,

Sandycove,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Israel isn’t starving Hamas, they are feeding it. – Yours, etc,

DAVID CURRAN,

Knocknacarra,

Galway.