Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Government, I want to say we are profoundly shocked at the death toll and scale of injuries that have been inflicted by Israeli forces on Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza.

This morning the Tánaiste summoned the Israeli ambassador to Iveagh House to express the Government's and the people's outrage and dismay at these events, including the number of people who have been killed and injured, and directly request that there be an independent international investigation into what happened, as called for by the UN Secretary General. Any country is entitled to defend its borders, but the use of force must be proportionate to the real threat posed. The protests may not have been 100% peaceful, but there is no indication that the scale of the threat could have justified such violence and so many deaths. In our view, live ammunition is not a tool to be used for crowd control; therefore, Ireland fully supports the UN Secretary General's call for an independent international investigation. It must examine the fatal decision to use live ammunition which led to so many deaths and injuries, including the deaths of children.

The blockade of Gaza which has gone on for over a decade is inhumane, a recipe for disaster and must end. Young people in Gaza have no prospect of ever leaving the tiny strip of land on which they are imprisoned and cannot even travel to the West Bank to study, visit relatives, work or engage in any normal activity. Ireland is very conscious of the difficulties faced by the people of Gaza. For this reason, the Tánaiste has made engagement with the Middle East process a priority. He will travel to Jerusalem in the coming months.

As the Tánaiste said, we profoundly disagree with the United States' decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city shared by two communities and is important to many faiths. No decisions on where embassies should be located should be made until there is a peaceful resolution of the conflict there. As a result, Ireland's embassy will remain in Tel Aviv, in line with international law and compliance with UN Security Council resolutions on the issue, in particular Resolution 478, by which we call on others to abide.

The Government will not be expelling the ambassador at this time. Ireland has not expelled an ambassador in recent decades, if ever. That is not the way we believe we should engage with other states.

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