Ireland’s president has been branded “despicable” and accused of spewing “anti-Semitic lies” after he referenced the plight of Gazans during a Holocaust commemoration event.

Several members of the audience were forcibly removed after turning their backs on Michael D Higgins in protest at his speech at the event in Dublin on Sunday.

“I believe that those in Israel who mourn their loved ones, those who have been waiting for the release of hostages, or the thousands searching for relatives in the rubble of Gaza, will welcome the long-overdue ceasefire, for which there has been such a heavy price paid,” Mr Higgins said.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, called his words a “cheap, despicable provocation” as he accused Mr Higgins of echoing “Hamas’s anti-Semitic lies and propaganda at a Holocaust memorial ceremony”.

“What a despicable person. What a distorted policy. Shame!” he added on X, formerly Twitter.