Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for giving us his time today to deal with these issues. It is a very complex area. I have visited Gaza; I was there in 2009, four weeks after the hostilities in that year. There was a huge amount of damage done at that time with many people killed.

I thought that after that event progress would have been made to try to come to a long-term solution, but that does not appear to have occurred.

I refer back to the issue of proportionality and reasonable force in 2009. This time the hostilities were much worse, but in 2009 Israeli forces used white phosphorous and cluster munitions, which were no different from the nail bombs used in Northern Ireland. That does not equate to reasonable force. In particular, the number of children killed or seriously injured in the past five years exceeds 1,000. How can Mr. Modai say proportionality was exercised in dealing with this issue?

One of the places I visited was a cement factory, which the Israeli forces detonated in the hope that if they stopped the manufacture of cement, they could stop the construction of tunnels. However, it did not stop; likewise, the hostilities of the past eight weeks will not stop the building of tunnels or the acquisition of arms as long as people see the area as being locked down. In real terms it is an open air prison for 1.8 million people. Does Israel not realise at this stage that there has to be a different way of approaching this issue from what has happened in the past ten years, in particular? It appears that for every step forward, ten steps have been taken backwards. I thought that after 2009 a considerable effort would be made on all sides to take steps forward, but people on both sides are now more entrenched than at any time previously.

I would like to ask about new ways of dealing with the issue because a one-track approach appears to have been adopted. A large number of people were killed and injured during the recent clashes. What direct support is Israel giving in the provision of health care by the international community which is giving assistance to those who were seriously injured? That is the test of how genuine Israel is about trying to see if there is a better way and clearly showing it is concerned about those who were injured.