Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I was due to travel to Gaza with a group of international parliamentarians about one week ago to observe the situation on the ground. The visit was cancelled because the safety of the visiting parliamentarians could not be guaranteed. This says everything one needs to know about the gravity of the outrageous position in Gaza which is essentially an open air prison as a result of the actions of the Israeli state. Time and again, Israel has ignored resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly and Security Council over the years. The world sees the speedy actions taken in Libya and, as Deputy Boyd Barrett noted, to some degree people understand the actions being taken in that country, albeit not their extent. It is outrageous that the international community has not made any interventions against Israel.

The Minister referred to the death of a young teenager, Daniel Viflic, who died as a result of a missile fired from Gaza. Two days earlier, Nidal Qdeih died along with her mother, Najah, when an Israeli missile struck their home. In recent times, 50 people have lost their lives in Gaza and more than 170 have been killed by Israelis since Operation Cast Lead. As the Minister will know, approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed during that outrageous offensive by the Israeli state.

The situation in Gaza must be a top priority for the Minister. I urge him to travel immediately to Gaza and follow in the footsteps of his party's previous spokesperson on foreign affairs, Michael D. Higgins, and his ministerial predecessor, Deputy Martin. It is imperative that he take a stand on this issue and travel to Gaza immediately to see for himself the circumstances on the ground and the impact of outrageous, illegal Israeli activity in the region, which the world has ignored.

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