Kairos Ireland Newsletter – Midsummer 2026

OCHA report – June 2026

The UNOCHA Humanitarian Situation Report for 12th June 2026 describes a grim humanitarian picture of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The report points to a lack of medicine and access to water, an escalation of settler attacks and the forced displacement of Palestinians, critical shortages of food and shelter, and the spread of pests and skin diseases in the insanitary conditions. Highlights of the report are listed below. The full report can be read here

Highlights

• The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is rapidly deteriorating, the UN Secretary-General warns. 
• In the West Bank, more than one third of essential medicines is out of stock and over 11,000 surgeries have been postponed since the beginning of 2026, the Palestinian Ministry of Health warns. 
• Since January, more than 1,000 settler attacks caused casualties or property damage across more than 230 communities, with over 2,200 Palestinians displaced in this context. 
• Since January, more than 100 incidents of demolition or settler violence have damaged or destroyed over 190 structures related to water and sanitation across the West Bank, increasing reliance on emergency water trucking in vulnerable communities. 
• In Gaza, over 70 per cent of people rely on trucked water, but funding gaps are putting this supply at risk. 
• Displaced families in overcrowded sites, damaged buildings and makeshift shelters will soon be exposed to extreme summer temperatures, while access restrictions and lengthy clearance procedures continue to affect the timely delivery of critical shelter and non-food items and funding shortfalls threaten procurement and pre-positioning of winter supplies.  
• While some 2,000 sites have been treated for pests since mid-May, skin diseases and infections continue to rise owing to limited access to safe water, sanitation and treatment, and access to landfills remaining restricted, causing continuous accumulation of waste in populated areas. 

The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres calls on all UN member states to comply with their obligations under international law and hold Israel accountable for these deliberate acts of injustice.

Arson in Taybeh

Taybeh is a is a Christian Palestinian village near Ramallah in the northern West Bank. The International Middle East Media Centre (IMEMC News) reports that on the 9th June settlers set fire to agricultural land belonging to the village. The local church Parish Priest states that the Palestinian Fire Services were prevented from reaching the fire and that when local people tackled the blaze themselves, they were shot at by armed settlers. The Middle East Eye account of the same incident refers to a UN report stating that such attacks are actively supported by the Israeli authorities. The ME Eye points out that even the US ambassador, Mike Huckabee, who is an ardent Christian Zionist supporter of the illegal settlements, condemned a 2025 arson attack on St George’s Church in Taybeh. See also the CBS report where Huckabdee condemns the acts of the violent settlers as terror.

SADAKA publications

Sadaka – the Ireland Palestine Alliance has been active in researching appropriate responses that Ireland could and should make in reaction to the ongoing genocide and war crimes by Israel in Palestine. A recent mailing by SADAKA outlines the activity undertaken by them in advocacy for justice and respect for international law. This mailing includes photographs reflecting the range of contacts and expertise that they have drawn upon in their work. Two recent publications from Sadaka are

‘Beyond Words: Strategic Unilateral Measures for Ireland in Response to Genocide in Gaza‘  is a carefully-researched paper prepared by Sadaka which details a series of areas in which the Irish Government could and should implement specific trade and related sanctions against Israel in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and its persistent policies of annexation, occupation and apartheid in the West Bank.

“Without Values, none of it matters”: Palestine and the Irish Presidency of the European Union, July-December 2026, authored by international and national experts including Michael D. Higgins, Prof. Monica McWilliams, Shawan Jabarin and Dr Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff and which outlines the basic principles which Ireland should uphold during its presidency and identifies a series of specific measures that Europe should take such as: 

• Recognise the illegality of the situation created by Israel
• Suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement
• Implement an arms embargo and end all military cooperation
• Pressure the ICC to expedite the investigations into the situation in Palestine
• Secure an EU-wide ban on trade with Israeli settlements
• Support Palestinian-led governance, recovery and reconstruction of Gaza
• Cancel Israel’s access to the Horizon Research and Erasmus + programmes.
• Activate the EU’s Blocking Statute
• Suspend visa-free access; impose sanctions, asset freezes and travel bans
• Protect EU civil liberties.

Second Jewish Anti-Zionist International Congress 26-28th June

This major event will be held in the Maldron Hotel Tallaght featuring a wide range of international speakers. Please follow the links below to purchase tickets for this event.

Congress 2026

John Parkin
Chairperson Kairos Ireland
June 2026