Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for coming. I think we have reached an inflection point in relation to what is happening in Gaza. The forced expulsion at gunpoint of the civilian population is a war crime, and Israel has done this twice. It has forced Gazans to endure a forced expulsion from Gaza city to Khan Younis and then from Khan Younis to Rafah. Rafah is their final refuge. There are approximately 1.8 million men, women and children trapped in Rafah. They are right up against the border, a fortified zone known as the Philadelphi corridor or the Saladin corridor between Kerem Shalom on the Israeli border right through to the Mediterranean. There is literally nowhere to go.They cannot evacuate. Israel, as the belligerent and having entered the territory of another country, is required under the Geneva Conventions and the laws of foreign conflict to provide a safe evacuation zone for civilians. It has not done that. It is also supposed to provide a safe zone in its own territory to give civilians access to medicine, nutrition, food, water and so on. It has not done so. It is in breach of its responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions.

Israel is also saturating the area with high explosives. If I got a piece of high explosives the size of a cigarette packet and placed it under a car, when it detonated people would not be able to tell what kind of vehicle it was. It would have to be forensically examined to determine its make. That is what one cigarette-packet sized piece of high explosives will do to a vehicle. Israel is dropping 500 kg free-fall dumb bombs in grid patterns onto the civilian population. High explosives have a number of effects on that population. The blast pulps internal organs. For anyone within the blast radius, it will pulp their internal organs - heart, lungs and kidneys - and shatter their bones. Anyone within the range of shrapnel will have catastrophic soft tissue injuries, limb separation or decapitation. During the week, I saw a photograph of a little girl - I would say she was about seven years old - who had been impacted by both blast and shrapnel effect. She was hanging by a piece of clothing which had snagged her on a wall and her intestines were hanging down, her little blue and pink intestines.

That is what Israel is inflicting on the civilian population. Some 70% of the casualties thus far are innocent men, women and children. Benjamin Netanyahu claims to have - I use his word - "eliminated" 9,000 Hamas fighters but the Israelis are killing 183 innocent men, women and children every day and seriously injuring 453 with polytrauma. That means every two minutes an innocent civilian in Gaza is butchered or rendered either to death or to a state of polytrauma that is life-changing. This is a deliberate and systematic strategy; it is not, to use the awful term, "collateral damage". Israel knows what it is doing and is doing it in full view of the international community.

It took the Israelis nine weeks to clear Khan Younis. They say there are four battalions of Hamas entrenched in Rafah among the civilian population. It must be borne in mind that Hamas continues to commit war crimes by firing missiles and rockets into Israel at civilian targets daily. It is also committing war crimes in that it is holding approximately 100 hostages. They must be released immediately but the principal victims are, and the centre of gravity of suffering lies among, the men, women and children of Gaza, the Palestinian people. If it takes nine weeks to clear Rafah, I believe we will see a rapid acceleration in the casualty rates. By my calculations - it is an appalling calculus - we will see a further 20,000 deaths and 70,000 seriously wounded. I use the words "butchered" and "rendered" advisedly because of the ubiquitous and indiscriminate use of high explosives and white phosphorus rounds. That will mean at the end of this operation, if the Israelis proceed, one in ten Gazans will have been either killed or seriously injured. That is a literal and metaphorical decimation of a people. It is biblical in its savagery and bestiality.

I commend the Taoiseach and Tánaiste on their unequivocal leadership on this and their moral courage among a European and international community that has been behind the curve in calling out what is happening in Gaza. They have given us ethical leadership. One can become devoid of hope and feel helpless but we can make a difference. The Tánaiste, who unfortunately had to leave, brokered an international ban on cluster munitions in Croke Park when he was Minister for Foreign Affairs in a previous administration. That shows that one individual, the Irish people and our public representatives can make a difference but we must be resolute in our condemnation and be clear. Israel is a great nation and has an inalienable right to exist and to defend itself; it has no right to perpetrate what is genocide within Rafah in the coming weeks.

I am alarmed that Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to invade Rafah before Ramadan. He is introducing ethno-nationalistic language and, I would argue, hate speech. Some of his colleagues have already referred to Palestinians and Gazans as human animals. As Senator O'Loughlin pointed out, this is happening in plain view. We are seeing it.

I welcome the Private Members' motion for tomorrow put forward by the Civil Engagement Group. Unfortunately, I will be at the OSCE in Vienna tomorrow but I commend the group and support the motion fully. It is great to see the House ad idembut I think of that little girl whose remains were photographed and uploaded around the world. Somebody dressed that little girl in that dress and put her into what they thought was a place of safety. It is unthinkable what is happening there at the moment. Israel is concentrating 1.8 million people in a ghetto for summary slaughter. There is no other way to describe it. It has no strategic benefit and will not achieve the war aims set out by Benjamin Netanyahu, destroy Hamas or eradicate its leadership. I stand in solidarity with other Senators to condemn what has happened. I have witnessed at first hand that slaughter and find it thoroughly heartbreaking and depressing to see it continue 30 years later.