File- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, front, arrives for a statement in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday, March 20, 2024.AP
“Analysis and consultation has now concluded. Ireland will be intervening,” Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said in a statement.
“I want to reiterate clearly what we witnessed on October 7 in Israel, and what we are currently seeing in Gaza, constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a massive scale,” he added.
"The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population. The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.", Martin said.
In January the ICJ, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians, after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.
A final ruling in South Africa's ICJ case in The Hague could take years.
Ireland FM noted that he had directed officials to commence work on a Declaration of Intervention under Article 63 of the statute of the ICJ.
Interventions by state parties under Article 63 do not take a specific side on whether genocide has been committed by Israel.
Martin's department said such third party interventions do not take a specific side in the dispute, but that the intervention would be an opportunity for Ireland to put forward its interpretation of one or more of the provisions of the Genocide Convention at issue in the case.
Long a champion of Palestinian rights, Ireland last week joined Spain, Malta and Slovenia in taking the first steps toward recognizing statehood declared by the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
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