Irish FM, EU’s Borrell call for sanctioning Israeli ministers

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Ireland’s foreign minister said that the Israeli regime deliberately targets civilians as well as Hamas forces with the military campaign it launched almost 11 months ago.

“This is a war against Palestinians not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable,” Micheal Martin told reporters, according to media outlets. “It’s a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 people, according to local health officials, displaced 90% of the population and destroyed its main cities.

Martin said a legal opinion issued by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is unlawful obliges the EU to take action. The Palestinians have hailed it as “a watershed moment for Palestine, for justice and for international law.”

“It cannot be business as usual,” Martin told reporters. “It is very clear to us that international humanitarian law has been broken.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, with the backing of Ireland, urged the ministers to consider imposing sanctions on certain members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet over their remarks about the war in Gaza.

“Some Israeli ministers have been launching hateful messages, unacceptable hateful messages, against the Palestinians and proposing things that go clearly against international law and is an (incitement) to commit more crimes,” Borrell said.

Borrell did not name the ministers, but earlier this month he criticized Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for suggesting that the starvation of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people “might be just and moral” until hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack are returned home.

Borrell said there should be “no taboos” to prevent the EU from ensuring that international humanitarian law is respected.