Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Israeli war cabinet minister, Yoav Gallant, recently said, "There will be a short pause and then we will continue operating with full military power." He also said, "Our strength will be greater, and it will take place throughout the entire strip.” Interesting that he referred to "the entire strip" because Israel has forced huge numbers of people to leave northern Gaza and go to southern Gaza. It has been made clear that after the pause, Israel will go into southern Gaza. It is saying the population should move west to Al-Mawasi which is a tiny strip of land where, by the way, there are zero hospitals. That would be an incredible disaster. Gallant spoke about "the entire strip". I wonder if that was a slip of the tongue. When the Taoiseach met the French Prime Minister, no doubt they discussed putting diplomatic pressure on Israel. I have to say that if we are talking about diplomatic pressure, the Government has been weak in its response to the fuss the Israeli state made about the Taoiseach's tweet. I think the Government was very weak in relation to that. Was there any discussion with the French Prime Minister about going beyond mere diplomatic pressure? Was there any discussion about real economic pressure that would bite, bear down on the Israeli state and force it to backtrack on what it has been doing - this genocide - over the last period of time? I would like to hear if there was any discussion on that.

See this speech in context