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

We agree that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is required. The killing has to stop. Hostages need to be released. Citizens of other countries need to be allowed to leave and we need to make sure that we get humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible. The Government is not proposing any specific sanctions at this point. We know when sanctions work. Sanctions work when they are done on a multilateral basis. Sanctions done unilaterally generally do more harm to the person imposing the sanctions than the entity on which they are imposed. Sanctions should, therefore, only be carried out on a multilateral basis in my view.

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