Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Israel's carpet bombing decimated Gaza's medical infrastructure, crippling the ability of Palestinians to help the injured, the sick and the dying. The destruction of hospitals is a direct violation of international law, a war crime, yet Israel believes it has the right to bomb hospitals. Last night, Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City was bombed. "Devastation", "carnage" and "a massacre" are just some of the words used by those who witnessed the devastation. Hundreds of innocent men, women and children have been reported dead, their lives wiped out in one horrific instant. Many more lie lost, buried beneath the rubble. This atrocity is made all the more harrowing because so many of those killed and wounded had fled their homes believing they were safe at a hospital, but they were wrong. Last night's bombing of Al-Ahli hospital demonstrates that nowhere is safe in Gaza. All the while, Israel's siege on Gaza continues and it intensifies a merciless military bombardment of an impoverished refugee population. We are now bearing witness to human catastrophe on an unimaginable scale.

So far, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed, a third of whom were children. Thousands more have been injured and an entire population has been displaced from their homes. The people of Gaza now face starvation as food runs out. Supplies of electricity, fuel and essential medicines are cut off as Israel continues its blockade. There is no clean water so the people of Gaza, desperate to survive, are drinking unsanitary water. Now the fear is that we will see an outbreak of cholera in Gaza. A disease such as cholera would rip through a war-torn, impoverished and malnourished population whose medical infrastructure has been obliterated, heaping nightmare upon nightmare. Gaza's children scavenge for supplies in the rubble of what were once their neighbourhoods, schools and playgrounds. Little kids on their bikes doing everything they can to help their mammies and daddies are traumatised by conflict and now stalked by disease. Níl an bhuamáil ar Gaza, atá á déanamh ag Iosrael, cosantach. Ionsaí ar dhaoine bochta atá ann. An bhfuil an Taoiseach chun iarraidh ar sos cogaidh? I said to the Taoiseach yesterday that Israel's actions are not defensive. Carpet bombing civilians is not defence.

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