Tánaiste suggests Israel may be holding up Gaza aid effort as he appeals for 100 trucks to be allowed into area

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has directly appealed to Israeli authorities to accelerate the opening of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza and also allow a five-fold increase in the number of aid trucks to be sent into the area in coming days.

“The situation is a crisis. We need to move faster,” he said.

US president Joe Biden brokered an agreement with Egypt and Israel in recent days for an aid convoy of about 20 trucks to be allowed over the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza, where civilians are running out of food and water. Israel is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza, having bombarded the area for two weeks following the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 civilians were murdered.

Speaking in Anglesey on Friday morning where he was attending Wales Ireland Forum meetings with the devolved Welsh government, Mr Martin expressed frustration at the pace of the aid effort and suggested that Israel may be holding it up.

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“It seems to me that the Israelis are dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on this. But the humanitarian crisis cannot wait. We need to get trucks of food in and it shouldn’t be 20 trucks, by the way. It should be 100. The key thing . . . is the opening of the Rafah crossing. I would appeal for an acceleration of that. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. The time has come now to open it,” he said.

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Mr Martin said the Irish Government had been assured by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that it could distribute aid from 100 trucks “safely to the correct recipients”. Israel has previously expressed concern that aid could be commandeered by Hamas forces in Gaza.

There are up to 40 dual Palestinian-Irish citizens and their dependents currently trapped in Gaza. Mr Martin said the “immediate priority” was to get the Rafah crossing over to facilitate their escape. After that, he said, the Government would organise their repatriation to Ireland on flights that may be shared with other European countries.

The Irish Government has been among the most forthright in Europe in calling for Israel to adhere to international law in pursuit of its war against Hamas, which attacked Israel and its citizens without warning on October 7th.

Mr Martin insisted Ireland had been “fair and balanced” in its comments. He said the Government fully acknowledges the “shock and terror” felt by the Israeli people and that the Hamas attack “realised many of [Israel’s previous] fears around security and terror, which many people felt maybe they were overdoing”.

“But our view ultimately is that the only way to get Israel security is to live in harmony with its neighbours. There is no military solution, there has to be a political track to this. I would hope that out of this would come international momentum to try to get a pathway to peace.”

Separately, on the Wales-Ireland Forum, Mr Martin said good relations between the Government and its Welsh counterparts remained extremely important, especially after Brexit. On Friday morning he attended an announcement by the Welsh government in Holyhead of a £40 million (€46 million) investment to buttress breakwater infrastructure at the port, which protects it from rough waters.

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“Sometimes we [in Ireland] take Holyhead for granted. But it was hit hard by Brexit,” he said.

First minister of Wales Mark Drakeford told The Irish Times that ties between his nation and Ireland had become all the more important, given the strains that had emerged in recent years in relations between Ireland and the UK government in Westminster.

“I think it does put an additional weight on that relationship,” he said.

Mr Drakeford said the Welsh and Irish governments would co-operate on issues such as renewable energy, and that Holyhead port would play a role in helping to facilitate this.