An Irish lawyer representing South Africa in its case alleging Israel is carrying out a genocide has said that “nobody is safe” in Gaza.
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC told judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the “horror of the genocide against the Palestinian people” was being live-streamed around the world in real time.
She said the international community had failed the Palestinian people who were broadcasting their own destruction “in the desperate, so far, vain hope that the world might do something”.
Ms Ni Ghralaigh said that there was a need for urgent provisional measures to order the Israeli military to halt its operations in Gaza.
Such measures could be decided upon in a much shorter timeframe than the full substantive case being heard in The Hague, The Netherlands.
She said the measures were required to “protect Palestinians in Gaza from the irreparable prejudice caused by Israel’s violations of the Genocide Convention”.
Under the Genocide Convention, genocide is defined as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
Ms Ni Ghralaigh said: “The United Nations Secretary-General and its chiefs describe the situation in Gaza variously as a crisis of humanity, a living hell, a bloodbath, a situation of utter, deepening and unmatched horror where an entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essential for survival on a massive scale.”
Quoting the UN’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, she said that Gaza has become a place of “death and despair” as families sleep in the open amid plummeting temperatures.
She said medical facilities are “under relentless attack” and overwhelmed by trauma cases, while infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over.
Ms Ni Ghralaigh, an award-winning barrister with expertise in international human rights law, said that Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing record-levels of food insecurity.
Continuing her quotation, she added: “Famine is around the corner. For children in particular, the last 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food, no water, no school, nothing but the terrifying sounds of war day in, day out.”
According to the regional health ministry, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Ms Ni Ghralaigh said more than 7,000 Palestinians are further reported missing and either presumed dead or currently dying “excruciatingly deaths trapped under the rubble”.
“On the basis of the current figures, on average, 247 Palestinians are being killed and are at risk of being killed every day – many of them literally blown to pieces.
“They include 48 mothers each day, two every hour. And over 117 children each day, leading UNICEF to call Israel’s actions a war on children.”
Ms Ni Ghralaigh, who worked on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry for the legal team representing the wounded and the families of those killed one one of the darkest days of Northern Ireland’s Troubles period, also said deaths from disease and starvation risked outstripping deaths from bombing.
In addition, she said the statistics show that more than 10 children will have one or both legs amputated every day – many without anaesthetic.
She added: “Entire multi-generational families will be obliterated and yet more Palestinian children will become ‘WCNSF’ – Wounded Child No Surviving Family: The terrible new acronym born out of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
The lawyer also said reports of field executions and torture are “mounting”.
She said Gaza was becoming uninhabitable, adding: “It is becoming ever clearer that huge swathes of Gaza – entire towns, villages, refugee camps – are being wiped from the map.”
Ms Ni Ghralaigh said nearly two million Palestinians had been repeatedly forced to flee their homes into “shrinking slivers of land where they continue to be bombed and killed”.
Arguing the case in front of ICJ judges, she said some might say that the “very reputation of international law […] hangs in the balance” on whether the court would grant the provisional measures.
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich said that the case was “absurd” and reiterated comments made previously that Hamas was the target of the Israeli government.
“Both in word and deed, Israel has made clear that Gaza’s civilians are not its enemy, and takes significant measures to minimise civilian casualties in its war against Hamas,” she said.
“The absurd application to the ICJ by South Africa ignores the many complexities of the situation, which was forced upon Israel and distracts the world from the important efforts for de-escalation.”
