Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for the response.

The response of Ireland and the international community clearly matters. It is time for the international community to call stop.

While I agree with the three calls the Government has made, we need to do more. Ireland must do all we can, not only to bring about a ceasefire, to bring about, what the Taoiseach has described, the release of hostages and the restoring of power and of water to Gaza, but to ensure also that Israel is held accountable. I have already written to the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, seeking a stronger position from the EU on this. Today, I have also written to the US ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Ms Claire Cronin, because the Biden Administration should be pushing for an immediate ceasefire and for an end to the bombardment of Gaza and we should ensure that Israel is held accountable for breaches of international law.

Following Hamas's horrific attack, which I have condemned as so many of us have, many countries have been reluctant to remind Israel of its international law obligations but it is at this times when grief in Israel is so raw that it is all the more important that we see a calm, a compassionate and, above all, an internationally legal response to the calamity that was inflicted on the people of Israel. We need to ensure that this hideous calamity that we are seeing unfold now for the people of Gaza is not allowed to continue and that Ireland is a strong voice at international level pushing for that ceasefire, for that restoration of power and services to Gaza, but also to hold a nation like Israel accountable where it commits war crimes.

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