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

I thank the Deputy. We had a video-conference of the European Council - the 27 Heads of State and Government - yesterday. It was a good meeting. It built on the statement that was released by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on behalf of the European Council on Saturday, puts us in a better place as a European Union and is a more consistent approach. The European Union can have more influence acting together than any member state can on its own.

We agreed very clearly to condemn the terrorist actions by Hamas and to recognise Israel's right to defend itself but that has to be within the confines of international humanitarian law. We spoke about the need to de-escalate this conflict. It cannot be de-escalated without an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and that is something that we are calling for as a Government. We also agreed that there needed to be a humanitarian response to relieve the suffering of the people in Gaza and far from suspending aid, we agreed that we would treble aid to Gaza as a European Union. We also agreed that we would work with Egypt to try to open a humanitarian air corridor as soon as possible.

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