This letter by Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch was published in the Irish Daily Mail on 30 Apr.

A recent UN report found that more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025. This figure does not include those buried under rubble, and deaths caused by hunger, diseases, and the destruction of vital infrastructure.

The horrific murders of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family is just one example of the barbarism being inflicted on the Palestinian people. The Palestinian genocide is being perpetrated not only by the state of Israel, but by individual Israeli politicians, soldiers and others. It is also being facilitated by other governments, especially the US, and by all those individuals and officials who facilitate or are complicity in genocide, or who are failing in their moral and legal duties to take all possible measures to prevent or stop genocide. By allowing US military use of Shannon airport and Irish airspace, the Irish Government could be judged as being complicit in war crimes and genocide. We cannot say that we did not know. Too many are doing too little to stop the killing of children especially. The trauma suffered by Hind Rajab was not an isolated event. We now know the names of over 21,000 children killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Other ongoing conflicts in Sudan, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere are causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children annually. They are not just numbers or collateral damage. The killing of children is among the most serious breaches of international and humanitarian laws.

The killing of Hind Rajab will be commemorated at a special peace vigil ceremony at Shannon airport at 1pm on Sunday 3rd May, which should have been Hind’s eight birthday.