Irish President Urges UN to Invoke Chapter Seven Against Israel’s Starvation Siege on Gaza

Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins has issued a searing rebuke of Israel’s ongoing assault and blockade on Gaza,  calling it a deliberate campaign of starvation and mass destruction,  and urged the United Nations to take immediate enforcement action to stop what he described as the annihilation of a people.

Warning that the world is witnessing the “incredible, incredible destruction of an entire people,” Higgins appealed to UN Secretary General António Guterres to invoke Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which allows the UN to act militarily without Security Council approval if peace is threatened.

“I am personally in favor of the secretary-general of the UN using Chapter Seven procedure, by which, whether or not the Security Council agrees, and even if there’s a blockage, the right exists for the secretary-general to seek to put together an international defense of a corridor,” he said.

The Irish president condemned Israel’s blockade of aid as an inhumane strategy designed to inflict suffering. He highlighted that more than 6,000 aid trucks, carrying enough food for three months, remain blocked while children die of hunger and women remain dehydrated inside the enclave. 

“Are we to watch children starving, women dehydrated, or trying to feed their children? So something must happen,” he insisted in a message.

He stressed that airdropping aid was wholly inadequate, arguing, “it means the people who are very vulnerable, the lame, the old and the young cannot in fact get that food easily,” he said, stressing that only an enforced land corridor guaranteed by the international community could ensure meaningful relief.

According to UN agencies, since Israel launched its attack on Gaza in October 2023, more than 61,000 Palestinians,  mostly women and children,  have been killed, and at least 6,000 children are now severely malnourished. 

So far, 175 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died from hunger after Israel dismantled UN aid delivery systems and imposed a blockade that humanitarian workers describe as a deliberate denial designed to starve the population into submission.

“All of these actions must not just receive the opprobrium of the world, but must lead to practical actions that cannot wait,” Higgins said, reiterating that immediate efforts, rather than delayed diplomatic responses, are essential to halt what he labelled the “destruction of an entire people.”