Israel to Close Embassy in Ireland Over Gaza Tensions

Israel said Sunday that it will close its embassy in Ireland, as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza. Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes had killed more than 46 people, including several children.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, described the decision as a response to what he called Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” Saar’s statement said, “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.” Israel had already recalled its ambassador to Dublin in May, after Ireland announced, together with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, that it would recognize a Palestinian state.

The Irish Cabinet had decided the previous week to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. That case accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and Israel denies the charge. Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Micheal Martin, said, “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.”

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the embassy closure “deeply regrettable.” He wrote on X: “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”

Strikes continued across Gaza on the same day. According to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike hit a school there and killed at least 16 people. Kamal Adwan Hospital said an airstrike on the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun killed at least 15 people, including two parents and their daughter and a father and his son. Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said at least 17 people, including six women and five children, were killed in three airstrikes on houses sheltering displaced people in Gaza City. Israel’s military said in a statement that it had struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area. There was no immediate Israeli military statement about the school strikes.

Another Israeli airstrike killed Ahmed al-Lawh, a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, in central Gaza, according to a hospital and the Qatar-based broadcaster. Al-Awda Hospital said a strike hit a point used by Gaza’s civil defense agency in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three civil defense workers, including the agency’s local head, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. Civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government. Colleague Kerem Al Dalou said, “We, the civil defense, are carrying out humanitarian work like in any country in the world. Why are we being targeted?”

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