Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I am aware of the report of DCI-Palestine, which documents the cases of 27 teenage children shot and injured while collecting building material near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel between March 2010 and February this year. These children and a number of adults scavenge for building materials among the destroyed buildings close to the border fence. This is testament to the inadequate volume of construction materials being allowed into Gaza and to the complete collapse of economic life and employment opportunities in the territory as a consequence of the blockade. I have raised this disturbing report in recent discussions with the Israeli ambassador and I intend to pursue it further when I visit Israel and Palestine, as I plan to in the near future. These shootings arise from the maintenance by Israel of a no-go zone of about half a kilometre in front of the border fence and I am also concerned about the effect this has in preventing farmers in Gaza accessing much of their land, which is in very short supply already.

I must acknowledge, however, that it would be very much easier to make this case if militant groups in Gaza were not regularly launching and seeking to launch attacks on or across the border, including attacks on the crossing points through which Gaza's supplies come. In this context, I make it clear that I condemn all acts of violence across the Israel-Gaza frontier, regardless of by whom or from where they are initiated.

Ireland has raised other issues concerning the treatment of Palestinian children generally in the Occupied Territories with the Israeli authorities, as well as in international fora such as the Human Rights Council in Geneva. I have also made clear my strong views on the overall blockade of Gaza which forms the background to this issue.

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