Ms Caoimhe de Barra:

I thank the Cathaoirleach for raising this matter. What we see unfolding in Lebanon is what unfolded in Gaza at the beginning. We thought there would be a day after in Gaza, and now it looks like there will never be a day after in Gaza. It looks like the intent is to make Gaza completely unliveable. New things come every day. Even this morning, there was a report on Al Jazeera about the amount of asbestos that has been released by the bombing over the past year. This in itself will cause catastrophic levels of cancer. The whole territory will become a territory where people cannot live even if there were a cessation of hostilities in the morning.

With respect to Lebanon, everything described by Ms Walsh is what we are seeing with our staff and partners on the ground. It is a horrifying prospect. Lebanon was in crisis beforehand. Again, it is easy to start a war, but it is not so easy to finish one. You cannot delink what is happening in Lebanon from what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories. That is extremely important. These things cannot be taken in part. It is important to bear in mind that while Israel has a right to defend itself from the rockets being fired by Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran, there has to be proportionality under international law and the laws of war. The targeting of civilian infrastructure, objects indispensable to civilian survival, is illegal. It is illegal for anyone to do that, whether it is Israel, Hezbollah or Hamas. Israel is doing it on a scale that is catastrophic. That needs to be recognised.

On what Ireland can do, this all links back to Israel's perspective on its own territory and its need to protect its people. Of course, the right to self-defence is there. The right of those people to move back to their homes is there, but it is not going to be achieved through military means. There needs to be a ceasefire and pressure for a ceasefire.

Israel has not responded to external pressure so far. I am speaking on behalf of Trócaire, which believes there needs to be signals that there are economic consequences to Israel's actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. The International Court of Justice advisory opinion released at the end of July is important because it says in unequivocal terms that the occupation of the occupied territories is illegal, the existence of settlements is illegal, and it is actually illegal to trade with those settlements. We think Ireland has an opportunity here. It is difficult at EU level, but Ireland has an opportunity to make that point extremely clear by looking at the occupied territories Bill, and ideally by introducing measures before the end of this Government that make it clear Ireland will not be party to the illegal occupation of those settlements. At EU level, the legal advice to Josep Borrell is seemingly extremely weak on the issue of settlements and trade with settlements. It is extremely clear with recognition of the pre-1967 borders, but it seems quite weak. This is perhaps something Ireland could investigate and challenge at the level of the Foreign Affairs Council. To what degree is the EU actually listening to the ICJ's advisory opinion, and how can that be used as a lever to get Israel to listen to international opinion? At the moment not enough is being done. We hope our Taoiseach will have some degree of influence when he meets with President Biden today, but at the moment not enough is being done to pressure Israel to realise the right to self-defence is not absolute, and you cannot have disproportionality in conflict.