Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has criticised Israel for cutting off electricity and water supplies to Gaza, calling the actions "not acceptable," and saying they may breach international law.
In an interview with RTÉ's Prime Time, Mr Varadkar said: "Israel is under threat. They do have a right to defend themselves, but they don't have the right to breach international humanitarian law.
"Israel is a country that is surrounded by these brutal, savage, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, countries like Iran, often supported by Islamic fundamentalists and anti-Semites around the world.
"I'm really concerned about what I'm seeing happening in Gaza at the moment."
He added: "To me, it amounts to collective punishment. Cutting off power, cutting off fuel supplies and water supplies, that's not the way a respectable democratic state should conduct itself."
Mr Varadkar called on Hamas to release all hostages immediately, and said Israel is "justified in attacking Hamas in Gaza and elsewhere".
However, he added: "Operations that clearly affect civilians disproportionately are wrong."
'Serious war crimes' being committed in Gaza - Robinson
Former president Mary Robinson has described Israel's response to last weekend's attacks by Hamas as a collective punishment against a whole population in Gaza, many of whom do not support the militant group.
She said she was glad to hear US President Joe Biden speak about the need for Israel to follow the rules of war.
However, Mrs Robinson added that Israel is in serious breach of its obligations.
"It is carrying out massive, indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, so civilians are suffering ... 1,200 have been killed already in the last few days," she told RTÉ's News at One.
"I do not know how many injured, on top of that. There is the siege blocking food and fuel and electricity and water.
Mrs Robinson also said that the actions of Hamas are "very serious war crimes" that "are not justified by what has been happening to the Palestinian people under occupation".
"Irish people are very aware of that. We must be very, very clear on that. We must not be ambivalent."
Mrs Robinson said that protection for civilians has to be increased and "safe havens" need to be offered if ground troops enter Gaza from Israel.
"Also, we must have humanitarian aid go in, and I'm very glad that the EU has spoken very clearly about this," she said.
The former president said that Ireland has already been a "very good voice in acknowledging the suffering of occupation and the continual problems of Palestinians over decades".
But people need to think about accountability, she added.
Mrs Robinson said: "Israel does not want to be accountable. The United States has not supported the International Criminal Court in relation to Israel.
"It does in relation to Ukraine, but not Israel and Western countries have been, to say the least, ambivalent and have not supported. Now is the time to support accountability."
She said that "Ireland may be able to play a role here".
Mrs Robinson became emotional as she spoke about the death of Kim Damti last weekend.
The 22-year old Irish-Israeli woman died after a Hamas attack at a music festival in Israel.
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Mrs Robinson, who is chair of The Elders global leaders group and a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said she could sense the tension in Israel and Palestine during her visit last June with former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
She said they were shocked by how things had deteriorated.
"Particularly for the Palestinians, but we were also very worried about Israel because there is a very right-wing government, which was talking about Jewish supremacy and potentially annexing the whole of the West Bank, and we saw more settlements, more violence against Palestinians," she said.
"The word apartheid came up in many discussions from Israeli human rights organisations, from former ambassadors of Israel and even former military.
"On the West Bank and in Gaza, Israel was committing the crime of apartheid.
"I am not quite sure what premonition it was, but I could feel the tension. I could feel that the status quo was intolerable, and we cannot go back to the status quo."
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