Israel will close its embassy in Ireland due to its “anti-Israel policies”

Israel announced on Sunday that it would close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli air strikes killed more than 30 people, including several children.

The decision to close the embassy in Dublin came in response to what the Israeli Foreign Minister described as Ireland’s extremist anti-Israel policies. In May, Israel recalled its ambassador from Dublin after Ireland, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, announced that it would recognize a Palestinian state.

Last week, the Irish government decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies these accusations.

“We are concerned that an overly narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is diminished,” Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Michael Martin said in a statement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s statement regarding the closure of the embassy stated that “Ireland crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris described the decision to close the embassy as “extremely regrettable.” He added on X: “I absolutely reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, human rights and international law.”

A child and a journalist were killed in Gaza

Israeli forces on Sunday continued to bombard the largely isolated northern Gaza Strip, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.

An airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida School in the town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the victims were taken.

The hospital said that among the dead were two parents and their daughter, in addition to a father and his son.

In Gaza City, at least 17 people, including six women and five children, were killed in three air strikes that hit homes housing displaced people, according to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Covered in bandages, Yahya Al-Yazji said, grieving for his wife and daughter: “We woke up to the strike. I woke up with rubble on top of me.” He added that his wife is in her third month of pregnancy.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist gathering point” in the Beit Hanoun area.

A hospital and a Qatari television station said that another Israeli air strike in central Gaza killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Ahmed Al-Louh.

Al Awda Hospital said that the raid hit a point belonging to the Gaza Civil Defense Service in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Three civil defense workers were also martyred, including the head of the agency in Nuseirat, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Civil Defense is the main rescue agency in Gaza and operates under the supervision of the Hamas-run government.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other Gazan militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.

The Israeli retaliatory attack led to the deaths of nearly 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry’s statistics do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but it says that more than half of the dead were women and children.