Sir, – The Israeli airstrike on the overcrowded, tented “designated humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi near Khan Younis a few days ago ranks as one of the worst war crimes in Israel’s relentless onslaught on Gaza. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, three US-made MK84 2,000-pound bombs with a total ordnance power of 6,000 pounds were dropped as civilians slept, eviscerating tents and occupants, burying and scattering whole families, and making nine-metre-deep craters.
Almost the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza has been forcefully displaced, many as much as 10 times, and now occupy an area a tenth the size of Gaza, trying to survive in overcrowded make-shift tents, that can be bombed at will by Israel with little more than a whimper from the so-called international community.
Given recent revelations here in Ireland, it is not unreasonable to speculate that the US-made MK84 bombs used in this undoubted war crime could have passed through Irish airspace or even stopped over at Shannon Airport, thus making Irish citizens complicit.
One wonders how many more such bombs need to fall on displaced and desperate Gazan civilians before Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on the rogue state of Israel and finally close Shannon Airport to the US military.
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The people of Gaza deserve more than meaningless whimpers. – Yours, etc,
JIM ROCHE,
PRO Steering Committee,
Irish Anti-War Movement,
Dublin 1.