Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I will not be here on Thursday, I want to talk about what is happening in Gaza today. I will start with two quotes. I think we all received the first last Thursday from the mission of the state of Palestine, which wrote to us:

We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morals, religion and international law. We renounce violence and adhere to international legitimacy, peaceful popular resistance, and political action as a path to achieving our national goals.

That is a perfectly reasonable and sensible statement and I endorse every word that the mission of the state of Palestine said in relation to what has happened in the past week.

The second quote is from an editorial in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, and is particularly interesting:

The disaster that befell Israel... is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession... while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.

I read that into the record to show there is a breadth of opinion within Israel and a significant portion of it does not support the horrendous actions we are witnessing in Gaza.

The numbers change all the time. It looked like 2,800 deaths this morning; at least 800 children, perhaps more; plus 1,000 missing from Gaza. Eight hundred children have been killed in the past week and President Biden is choosing tomorrow to go over and show his steadfast support for Israel, after seeing 800 children murdered by carpet bombing in Gaza. That is what is happening. We are seeing ethnic cleansing and mass murder in relation to one nation, Palestine. It is appalling. To be clear, I condemn all violence in relation to this over the past week.

I know European leaders are meeting this afternoon and the Taoiseach is involved. Surely the call all of us must endorse is for an immediate ceasefire on all sides and the release of hostages. If we do not, we are somehow implying it is okay for Israel to continue carpet bombing and perhaps to invade Gaza as it plans to do. By the time the House debates this on Thursday, how many more hundreds of children will have died? There is hard work going on to agree a motion and I hope we can agree one across the parties. Surely we can all agree the call from Europe must be for an immediate ceasefire on all sides and the release of hostages. If Europe cannot agree to that, then I urge a coalition of the willing.The Irish Government should be part of that demand for peace and an immediate ceasefire.