Irish in Gaza

15/11/2025

Opposition parties will seek to put pressure on the Government to include a ban on trade in services in the planned Occupied Territories legislation.

People Before Profit will use its Dáil time next week for a motion from left-wing parties and Independents calling on the Government to “urgently progress” the legislation banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

The motion also calls on the Government’s planned legislation to include a ban on trade in services as well as in goods.

There has been doubt raised that the Government’s legislation will include a trade ban on servces

Last month Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil that in relation to services: “the feedback I’m getting, it’s not just implementable”.

He later said no decision had been made on the matter but also told the Dáil that “being honest”, goods could be traced “fairly easily through documentation, certificates of origin and physical supply chains” and “Services are a much different kettle of fish”.

The original Occupied Territories Bill was put forward by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018.

Last year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are in breach of international law. The advisory opinion it issued led to the last Government seeking new legal advice on the Occupied Territories Bill and subsequently committing to developing its own legislation to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

The current Coalition has promised to progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Government has faced pressure not to proceed from US politicians. A group of Senators and members of Congress last month wrote to the Taoiseach claiming the legislation would “risk causing significant damage” to the State’s economic credibility and US partnerships.

However, a US source suggested that US political opponents do not differentiate between goods and services.

Speaking in advance of next week’s Opposition motion, Ms Black said: “The findings of the International Court of Justice, which Government have pledged to respect, were absolutely clear: trade with the illegal Israeli settlements, both goods and services, must end.”

She also said this is the “unanimous position” of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee.

Ms Black added: “It’s now a year since the Government parties pledged pre-election to pass this Bill ... It’s time for them to stop delaying, show some courage and act.”

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said: “The big lesson of Catherine Connolly’s presidential election victory is that the left can win when it works together and mobilises people.

“If the left co-operates to work with powerful movements in communities and in the streets, we can force the Government to act.”

The motion is due to be debated on Wednesday morning, with the prospect of a Dáil vote on it that evening.

Campaigners want services included in the Bill, citing some online platforms that have a presence in the Occupied Territories.

The Foreign Affairs Committee recommended the inclusion of a ban on services though its report also says the there was “no data was available to it to ascertain the quantity of services imported from the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

At the time of the report’s publication, Ms Black said the “vast majority of companies here, American or otherwise, will not be impacted by this Bill” because “they’re not trading with the illegal settlements”.

Meanwhile, Omar Barghouti, the founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, addressed a cross-party meeting of TDs and Senators in Leinster House on Thursday.

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said afterwards that Mr Barghouti had “strong words” that are a “wake-up call to Irish society and to politicians that the Palestinians are tired of our rhetoric and demand action against genocide”.

Taoiseach has cautioned Dáil previously that tracking services may ‘just not implementable’

14/11/2025

Gaza resembles "something out of a Mad Max movie", with lawlessness on the streets and amputations carried out on children daily, an Irish surgeon who left Palestinian territory this week has said.

Dr Morgan McMonagle, a University Hospital Waterford consultant vascular and trauma surgeon, spent the past three weeks working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He worked in the enclave on two previous occasions.

Despite the US-backed ceasefire which started on 10 October, Dr McMonagle told RTÉ's Morning Ireland the situation in Gaza is as bad as ever.

Speaking ahead of his departure from Gaza, he said: "I don't know if you heard in the background, there's an F-35 airplane flying over me at the moment. There are still reconnaissance missions going on. We have the constant drone noise - that's 24/7. We're hearing explosions every single day," he said.

exterior shot of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
Dr Morgan McMonagle spent three weeks working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
On his first night back in Gaza, there was a mass casualty emergency. Most of the dead and injured were hit by shrapnel.

"We were given a security warning that Israel had made a decision to bomb various parts of Gaza, which then happened, and we had a mass casualty incident at about 3.30-4am in the morning. We had, I think the figures were, 23 dead that night, and I think about 60 or 65 severely injured. There were operations going on all night," he said.

"Of the 23 brought in dead that night, I think about 13 or 14 were under the age of 18.

"They were mostly shrapnel injuries. That’s because if you're close enough to the epicentre of a military-grade explosion, you're effectively dead, due to the power of the actual explosion itself.

"So, most of the people who arrived alive with shrapnel injury, the problem with shrapnel is you've got hundreds of pieces of metal and cement and grit going at supersonic speed. It’s never a single system injury. So, it'll affect your brain, your chest, your abdomen, your limbs.

"So, for example, a 14-year-old girl who we operated on ended up with major vascular injuries to her lower limb and her upper limb. She also had penetrating injury of her brain and her belly. Two days later, I did an amputation of her leg, and three days after that, she died.

"From my experience, if you receive shrapnel penetrating injury to the brain, from my experience, it is almost a 100% mortality injury," he said.

"It is like something from a Mad Max movie where a post-apocalyptic disaster has occurred. The difference being, of course, this is completely man-made"

In recent days Dr McMonagle, who is originally from Cavan town, amputated a 14-year-old boy's leg. The boy's dreams of playing with Manchester United died with the life-saving procedure.

"It's never nice, amputating a limb of a child. I did one yesterday, a 14-year-old boy who received a gunshot to his leg, we repaired the vessels. Didn't work, his leg died, took off his leg yesterday. I saw him this morning, he's doing very well.

"He's just lost his leg and he was a keen soccer player. He told me through the interpreter he wanted to play for Man United. You know, it's unlikely he'd play soccer again because it's what we call an above-knee amputation, so he's lost his knee. But children are children and he seemed reasonably happy to see me this morning.

"His parents were naturally very upset. But again, this is a recurring theme."

"And I've done many, many amputations of children, all in Gaza, all in Gaza, all due to either gunshot wounds or shotgun injury. All man-made," Dr McMonagle said.

He also said the conditions in Nasser Hospital are difficult with infection and disease being rampant.

"The actual disease and the infectious diseases in the hospital is absolutely enormous. You walk on the ward and it's like something from the 18th Century from a plague hospital because there are patients everywhere and families lying on the floor, lying in the stairwells.

"You can smell, there's a particular infection that comes with wet gangrenous wounds called pseudomonas. Some of your listeners who are healthcare workers will know the smell. The wards constantly have that hanging thick in the air. There's infection everywhere.

"And on top of that, they just come out of a period of starvation. So, their body's immune systems are not good at fighting infections or fighting wounds. So, wounds break down. And this is a problem over and over and over again," he said.

Medical supplies remain in short supply because they are not allowed into Gaza, he said.

With painkillers and anaesthetic scarce some patients feel pain during procedures, Dr McMonagle said.

"We're getting by, we're making do. But Israel have banned medical supplies coming in. You compromise. You find whatever's available and you compromise. It's not ideal and patients are left in pain," he said.


Dr Morgan McMonagle said children are presenting at the hospital with 'all the hallmarks of malnutrition'
On other supplies and food getting into Gaza, he said there is a lack of protein available to people.

"Food is trickling in. There's enough carbohydrate, well, I can see in the form of rice getting in. But that's about it ... and now that we're heading into the winter, things are going to get colder. Everyone's living in tents outside the hospital now," he said.

"I've seen a lot of children come in with the hallmarks of a period of malnutrition, so they've lost a lot of weight. They're very, very thin. The staff, who I remember last time, have lost weight. So, I would say there's a trickle of feed getting in, but not enough. And it's mostly in the form of carbohydrates. So, it's rice, it’s potatoes, it's not protein," he said.

Comparing Gaza today to what he saw when he was last there in March, the Waterford doctor described it as a wasteland where people live in tents beside rubbish dumps and open sewage.

'There's infection everywhere".

"My best description is that it's like something from a Mad Max movie. There's very little law and order. The buildings, those that are even standing are still badly destroyed. And you can see people have moved into them and put up some tarpaulin or put up some blankets to try and protect them from the elements.

"But most people are living in tents. And therefore, there's makeshift sewage, which is going into various holes. People living beside dumps that's full of rubbish and putrefying flesh.

"There's dogs and cats everywhere. When we arrived here, we were told, and we've been told several times ... to concentrate on the living children and the living women of fertile age, because people know there's a genocide going on. People know that certain nationalities want to raze the Palestinians as a race.

"It is like something from a Mad Max movie where a post-apocalyptic disaster has occurred. The difference being, of course, this is completely man-made.

"It looks like a ... a jungle of concrete wreckage. That's the best way to describe it," he said.

Talking about the sense of security in Gaza he added, "there's very little official law and order. Law and order has broken down and it's a conflict zone. So, people are naturally struggling to survive".

Asked what the local view is of the ceasefire, he said people see it as "a pause".

"Most locals just say what you'd expect. We hope this will hold. We pray it'll hold. But they don't believe it's a ceasefire. They call it a pause. It is and it isn't because there's still bombs going off, there's still shootings, there's still quadcopters and drones in the air, there's still F-35s flying over."

Gaza resembles "something out of a Mad Max movie", with lawlessness on the streets and amputations carried out on children daily, an Irish surgeon who left Palestinian territory this week has said.

11/11/2025

Donna Keane
Thank you so much. Running a marathon is no small thing — but running a marathon and fundraising at the same time is truly incredible.
We’re so proud of you, so grateful, and completely in awe...
Thank you for thinking of us and for all the support you’ve shown to us and through us.

Please also thank everyone who donated — together, you’ve made such a real and lasting difference. Your kindness and effort have helped so many people, both in the lead-up to and since the Dublin Marathon.
Your support means so much and will never be forgotten.
Thank you, Donna

So much of what Derek and I do depends on the help and kindness of others and we don’t/wont ever stop, because we can’t. Not while people are still struggling to meet their most basic needs due to man made attrocities and genocide ...all committed and allowed with total impunity.

Every day and every bit of solidarity shown, reminds us how much strength there is in cooperation, solidarity, and friendship. Those things allow us to keep going — and we never, ever take them for granted.

If you’d like to stand with us and help keep water flowing to the northern areas of Gaza, our details are below. Every bit of support , beit via donations,sharing of posts,fundraising or just checking in — it keeps hope alive, one drop at a time. 💧❤️

https://www.paypal.me/Jennygraham537
or

revolut link: revolut.me/jennyg7

10/11/2025

“A man was standing on the roof, hanging laundry, and the officer decided that he was a spotter. He’s not a spotter. He’s hanging his laundry. You can see that he’s hanging laundry,” he says.

“Now, it’s not as if this man had binoculars or weapons. The closest military force was 600-700 metres away. So unless he had eagle eyes, how could he possibly be a spotter? And the tank fired a shell. The building half collapsed. And the result was many dead and wounded.”...

IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy

08/11/2025

30/10/2025

Physician assistant at Beaumont Hospital says petition still stands while the ceasefire is ongoing. Photograph: Alan Betson

Physician assistant at Beaumont Hospital says petition still stands while the ceasefire is ongoing.

More than 470 staff at Beaumont Hospital and 250 medical consultants across the State have backed a boycott of Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company that is a major drug supplier to the HSE.

The latest petitions follow similar action by staff at Children’s Health Ireland and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh.

Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli multinational, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of generic and specialist drugs. The company, which makes Sudocrem, has a big presence in Ireland and is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines to the HSE.

More than 250 consultants across Ireland have signed a letter to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster. The letter, seen by The Irish Times, said the consultants “believe it is our ethical duty to request that the HSE take immediate steps to discontinue the procurement and use of pharmaceuticals manufactured by Teva where viable alternatives exist”.

“We acknowledge the need to maintain a stable supply of essential medicines for our patients and do not advocate for any measure that would compromise clinical care. However, many of these medications are available from other companies and we urge you to transition to these.”

The language is similar to that in a letter sent to Anne Coyle, chief executive of Beaumont Hospital. The letter was signed by 473 hospital staff members, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, dietitians, catering staff, cleaning staff, porters, and security.

Emma O’Friel, a physician assistant at Beaumont Hospital, said the petition still stood while the ceasefire was ongoing. Ms O’Friel said “there are many continuing atrocities in Palestine which breach human rights and medical ethics”.

Staff at CHI and Cappagh Hospital in Tallaght previously argued that tax paid by Teva to the Israeli government “directly funds the diplomatic and military resources employed by the Israeli government to carry out a genocide and silence dissent domestically and internationally”.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said Mr Gloster had received the letter and was reviewing it. “The HSE is a public body funded by the Department of Health and as such is obliged to ensure that all its procurement activities comply with relevant Government guidelines and EU directives applicable to State bodies,” the spokeswoman said.

The Department of Health said it “does not play a role in the procurement of any medicine under the EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU”. Beaumont Hospital declined to respond to requests for comment.

Teva has previously said any boycott of its medicine could “impose a risk on the health and wellbeing” of patients. A spokesman for Teva said it adhered to the “highest standards in ethics and business practices”.

He said its patients “rely on regular and reliable supply of medicines” and, as one of the largest manufacturers of generic medicines, Teva remained “committed to ensuring that our quality medicines remain available to our patients, regardless of their religion, beliefs, or ethnicity”.

“Any boycott on Teva may impose a risk on the health and wellbeing of those patients, the healthcare systems we serve, our global workforce and their families,” the spokesman said.

Latest petitions follow similar action by staff at Children’s Health Ireland and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh

29/10/2025

Mixed emotions tonight as we came across a couple of flash drives from our years travelling to and living in Gaza.
So many pictures,documents etc we thought were long gone.

Some hard hitting memories,some wonderful reminiscing and so much wondering and worrying ...

So many friends,Palestinian and international. So many stories,dreams,projects. So happy to still have these photos etc

Beautiful Gaza...her people,her laughter and her sorrow. Honoured to say we lived there.

And as with every project we've ever done,We have been completely grateful for the support,in many forms,we have received. So many of you have been with us through so much, emergency runs of much needed medicine,water deliveries,agricultural tank for water storage,blankets and tarpaulin and water wells and together we continue, with love.

I

To Donate [email protected]

https://www.paypal.me/Jennygraham537
or

revolut link: revolut.me/jennyg7

28/10/2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to carry out “powerful” attacks in Gaza, his office says.

It comes after Netanyahu alleged Hamas committed a “clear violation” of the ceasefire deal. For its part, Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel of committing 125 violations of the ceasefire since it came into effect on October 10, including killing 94 Palestinians.

The sound of explosions and drones continues across Gaza despite the ceasefire: “It’s just a constant reminder of how fragile this ceasefire is,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from Gaza City.