In a statement this evening he also addressed the ongoing deprivation of medicine and food to citizens in Gaza.
Mr Higgins’ statement this evening came after Hamas released a video showing an emaciated hostage Evyatar David (24) in a narrow tunnel. Mr David was captured by Hamas at a music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Mr David is seen digging what he believes will be his own grave.
Hamas blames the blockade on Gaza for cutting off food and other resources, which has led the region into famine-like conditions, while Israel says the group is deliberately starving hostages.
Images of the hostages as well as starving children in Gaza have been met with condemnation from world leaders.
Mr Higgins said the hostage videos were “ a shocking act of cruelty and reflects not only on those responsible for such actions but damages any cause to which they attach themselves.
“We are now in a position of seeing the nadir of human behaviour with images like these occurring at the same time as children are deprived of medicine and mothers are deprived of water and the necessary means of addressing malnutrition as they watch their children die.
“All of these actions must not just receive the opprobrium of the world, but must lead to practical actions that cannot wait until September to be addressed.
“I repeat the suggestion which I have made previously with regard to how Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter may provide a mechanism for ensuring safe access of aid.”
Six more people died of starvation or malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, its health ministry said.
Israel said it allowed a delivery of fuel to the enclave, which is in the throes of a humanitarian disaster after almost two years of war.
The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the conflict began.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international uproar, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that nearly 1,600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July.
However, witnesses and Hamas sources told the Reuters news agency that many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s air and ground war in densely populated Gaza has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to health officials there.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.