In statements to local radio station RTE on Monday, Higgins said: "I believe that the Secretary-General of the United Nations should use the procedures stipulated in the United Nations Charter, using Chapter VII."
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter is concerned with the maintenance of international peace and security, and under it the Security Council determines “the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.”
"I mean, effectively, whether the Security Council agrees or not, and even if there is a veto, the Secretary-General has the right to seek to establish an international defense," Higgins added.
The Irish president pointed out that 6,000 aid trucks, enough for three months, were prevented from entering Gaza, saying, "This is terrible."
"I can't stand here and make a speech when I see this massive devastation of a people happening right now," Higgins said. "Are we going to continue to watch children starve, women suffer from dehydration, trying to feed their children? Something has to happen. Something has to happen."
On Monday, the government media office in Gaza said that Israel had allowed the entry of only 674 aid trucks since July 27, representing approximately 14 percent of the Gaza Strip's minimum daily need, estimated at approximately 600 trucks.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with US support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide left more than 210,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
