Overview
- SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has declined an invitation to the White House's St Patrick's Day celebrations, citing the US's response to the Israel-Gaza conflict as the reason.
- Eastwood described the international community's response to the conflict as 'heinously deficient', and the US administration's response as 'particularly atrocious'.
- Eastwood plans to send a delegation to Washington to 'make the case for an end to violence'.
- More than 26,000 Palestinians have died in Israel's retaliatory attacks, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
- The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering an immediate ceasefire.