Ms Natasha Hausdorff:

I will respond to a couple of Deputy Brady's questions. Many issues were already addressed in my opening remarks, so I will restrict myself to the new material. The current situation is not a spontaneous escalation. This has been planned. Hamas has been stockpiling weapons and rebuilding its terror network with Iranian backing since the last conflict in 2014. This is why we see more sophisticated weaponry, including Iranian Fajr-5 rockets and heavy mortars, and tactics being developed to attempt to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system which protects the civilian population from bombardment. It is important to stress to the members of the committee the indiscriminate nature of Hamas missile attacks. An estimated one third of these missiles have been falling short in Gaza killing Palestinian civilians. Yes, Hamas is killing its own people and, devastatingly, this is nothing new. It is also blaming Israel for these killings, which is also nothing new.

The committee does not have to take my word for that. It can take it from the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, which is based in the Gaza Strip, which reported the deaths of those children and the al-Masri family before Israel's response in Gaza began. That is not to mention the Hamas missile which fell short destroying electricity infrastructure and leaving 100,000 people without electricity and cutting off a hospital. We must be absolutely clear about the origins of this latest round of violence. It arises from a power struggle between the Palestinian terrorist groups of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. An internal conflict within Hamas between Mohammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar has been brewing. Tensions were sparked by Mahmoud Abbas's decision to cancel the Palestinian elections because he believed he was going to lose. He is currently in his 16th year of his final four-year term.

The month of Ramadan is usually tense due to extreme incitement by Arab leaders. Over the course of this month, the conflict began with random attacks on Jews in Jerusalem by gangs of Arabs. That quickly escalated, as it was encouraged over social media, to violent riots, first on the Temple Mount and then across Israel. More recently, elements of the Israeli-Arab population have started to set fire to cities where Arabs and Jews live together. A minority of Arabs in Haifa, Acre, Ramle and Lod are now promoting rogue elements in the Jewish population there to respond. This has been resoundingly condemned by the Israeli leadership, which has been calling for restraint. Social media has played a significant role in Hamas incitement of the Arab population, encouraging Arabs to buy knives for the equivalent of €1.25 to cut the throats of any Jews they can find.

Senior Hamas leader, Fathi Hammad, declared on 7 May that he wanted the people of Jerusalem to cut off the heads of Jews with knives. In the days leading up to the riots on the Temple Mount compound, Palestinians stockpiled stone slabs, rocks and fireworks around the site. Thousands of worshippers leaving Friday prayers hurled rocks at Israeli police officers guarding the site, who responded to contain the violence. These rioters were hurling rocks onto the Western Wall plaza and on to Jewish worshippers who had to be evacuated. These rioters claimed they were Hamas and shouted that Tel Aviv should be bombed. Hamas and-----