An independent UN report which confirmed the IDF is deliberately targeting and murdering children in Gaza reveals the depths of Israel’s depravity, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.
Senator Stephenson said:
“An independent UN inquiry has found that Israel continues to commit genocide by deliberately targeting and murdering Palestinian children in Gaza.
“The details of the report are harrowing. In one instance, the IDF shot a 16 year-old boy and then ran over his body with a tank, mutilating it. In another, it describes how a 15-year-old boy holding a white flag was shot dead by snipers, along with his younger brother and mother who had come to his aid.
“In another documented case, a ten-day-old baby was shot in the head by a sniper rifle mounted on a quadcopter while he was breastfeeding.
“The depths of the depravity revealed in this report are chilling and should prompt mass revulsion and horror in Western governments. Instead, it has barely registered – with Israel being given impunity to torture, mutilate and murder innocent Palestinian children.
“The level of inaction by Western governments – which now have masses of evidence that a genocide is being committed in broad daylight in Gaza – is sickening and despicable.
“Our Government, which says it agrees a genocide is underway, doesn’t match that rhetoric with action. Instead, it is slow-walking a gutted Occupied Territories Bill through the Oireachtas.
“Meanwhile, the EU, which professes to care about human rights and international law, continues to sit back and do nothing. Its members will never wash away the indelible shame of their inaction.
“This shocking report, and the litany of grotesque human rights abuses committed by a barbaric Israeli army, cannot be allowed to sit on a shelf and gather dust. It must spur action.
“The Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs Minister must include a ban on services in the Occupied Territories Bill and ensure that imposing sanctions against Israel is a centre piece of the upcoming Irish Presidency of the EU.”
June 25th, 2026