End this shocking slaughter of Palestinians

PRESSURE ON ISRAEL TO STOP

- CATE MCCURRY

TAOCATE MCCURRYISEACH Micheal Martin has strongly condemned the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza, describing them as the "collective punishment" of Palestinians.

He said the "deploring and shocking" bombings have led to the deaths of "so many innocent people".

The Fianna Fail leader is in Brussels for an EU summit with his European counterparts.

Asked about the latest strikes which hit multiple homes overnight, killing men, women and children as they slept, he said: "These statements yesterday from Israeli leaders, particularly in terms of (defence) Minister (Israel) Katz, seemed to me to amount to collective punishment of the Palestinians within Gaza. It's quite shocking.

"It needs to stop, and Europe needs to say stop to the killing and to the slaughter that's going on in Gaza at the moment.