Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin Deputies for tabling this motion and allowing us another opportunity to address this issue. This is my third time to speak on the unfolding horror that we are witnessing in Gaza. Last week, I said that the carnage we are witnessing daily is sickening. The only thing that has happened since is that matters have become even worse. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science told the Dáil earlier that this is a war on children. The State of Israel is waging war on children. It is a war that has claimed 4,000 victims so far. They are 4,000 beautiful, innocent children.

The bloodletting continues as we speak in this Chamber this evening. Even war has rules. Humanity has tried to codify acceptable conduct, even in conflict. Foremost among the requirements of belligerents is the protection of children. It is not acceptable to target hospitals. These are places of sanctuary. The declaration, or even the belief, that hospitals are being used by combatants is not an excuse for the destruction of the infrastructure to treat the sick, the ill and the wounded. Laying siege to hospitals is an act of savagery. Gaza's main hospital, Al-Shifa, is today reported to be burying scores of dead patients in a mass grave. The hospital's administrator Mohammed Abu Salmiya said that bodies are littered across the complex and there is no longer electricity in the morgues. He said that so far 179 bodies have been buried, including those of seven babies and 20 ICU patients. The UN has stated that 10,000 people are in the grounds of Al-Shifa Hospital, including staff, the ill, the wounded, and thousands of desperate people seeking shelter. They are looking to a hospital as a place of refuge.

The Palestinian death toll, rising by the hour, currently exceeds 11,200 people.

By any measure, this is a humanitarian disaster of monumental scale and it must stop. The Hamas attack on 11 October was unconscionable and unacceptable. The murder and kidnapping of men, women and children was and is truly shocking but the bloodletting unleashed since by Israel cannot be justified or accepted by the world community.

The policy of Israel now seems to be not alone to destroy Hamas but to destroy the very basis of Palestine itself. From our history, we know full well how generational hate festers after unconscionable violence. Lashing out in rage can sow a terrible seed of future destruction. The people of Ireland - we know this from the thousands of emails we receive and from speaking to people everywhere we go in our constituencies - are truly and deeply concerned about what they are witnessing. They are demanding that we, the Government, the Parliament and every individual politician, do all in our power to bring this carnage to an end. In truth, our influence and our power to fundamentally change the situation on the ground are limited. We know this. However, we can shout loud. We can talk to our friends and allies to build a voice and make clear that there will be no impunity for any individual or any state actor committing acts that breach international humanitarian law.

As the Minister of State indicated, the ICC is investigating. We must insist on the same force and vigour that we, as a nation and as a Parliament, sought in the investigation of criminal acts perpetrated by Russia against the people of Ukraine. In March 2022, Ireland joined 42 other countries in a states-party referral to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine. This joint referral was lodged by our State, together with 42 other states, even though the ICC had announced the previous month that it would seek authorisation to open an investigation into this important matter. The ICC had indicated, in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, that it was investigating criminal acts and potential violations of the international humanitarian law. Despite this, we thought it right and proper to join with 42 other nations to demand that investigation through a state party referral. Other states, even after this, joined the referral. Not long after the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, one being the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

There can be no double standards. There can be no differentiation in our demands for adherence to the norms of international law. There can be no differentiation in our demands for legal accountability. I was truly surprised and dismayed at the argument that has been made by the Minister of State. It will do no injury to the ICC's investigation for us to do as we did previously and join other state actors and parties to lodge our view with the ICC that an investigation should happen.

I said last week that whatever is believed in the leadership of Hamas or in the leadership of the Israel Defense Forces there can be no military solution to this conflict. There must be a negotiated future, which will deliver both a safe and secure Israel and a viable independent Palestine. For decades the world looked on as the prospect of having two independent viable states side by side became ever more difficult to achieve. The international community must now, in the aftermath of this shocking horrific carnage, give its full weight to achieve this formula, which is the only long-term solution. Those who argue for a single state with an overwhelming majority of people who do not have allegiance to that state know it will foment war and violence for decades to come. Before we reach this the killing must end. The siege on the people of Gaza must be lifted. All hostages held in Gaza by Hamas must be released. We, a small voice but a powerful voice in the international community, must demand that those reasonable humanitarian objectives to be achieved.

See this speech in context