MICHEAL: I DON'T KNOW HOW NETANYAHU SLEEPS AT NIGHT

TAOISEACH Micheal Martin accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being blind to the horrors of Gaza and asked: “I don't know how such a person sleeps at night.

- BY NEIL LESLIE

Speaking yesterday - minutes after Mr Netanyahu had lashed the United Nations gathering for supporting a Palestinian state - Mr Martin said nothing could defend the slaughter and man-made famine in the Strip.

The Israeli leader called the decision of Ireland and other nations to recognise a Palestinian state “a mark of shame”.

However, Mr Martin responded in his speech by telling the UN general assembly that Ireland “stands in full solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

Speaking to media afterwards, he challenged the Israeli leadership to allow independent journalists and observers in to see the reality.

Mr Martin said: “It seems to me that he's completely blind to the horrors of children who have been burned, been bombed, who've been maimed, mutilated in Gaza.

“And I don't understand how a person can go to sleep at night responsible for such trauma, such carnage in Gaza. So his speech in that perspective is deeply, deeply disappointing to say the least.”

In his official address earlier, Mr Martin also condemned Israel's actions as a genocide.

The Taoiseach said: “It is not possible to describe the scale of the physical and psychological suffering endured by the Palestinian people for two long and brutal years.

“What is happening in Gaza cannot be justified or defended. It is an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law.

“We are witnessing hunger being used as an instrument of war.

“Babies starving to death while aid rots at the border.

“People shot while desperately seeking food for their families.

“The deliberate targeting and destruction of schools, hospitals, mosques, cultural institutions.