Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

How much longer is the international community going to sit back and watch an impending genocide in Gaza? How many innocent civilians have to die? How many children have to be butchered? How many hospitals have to be destroyed, residential buildings flattened, schools decimated and farms devastated? How much slaughter and indiscriminate destruction can western leaders stomach? More than 15,000 people have now been massacred in Gaza, including at least 6,000 children. Will 5,000 more Palestinian lives satisfy Israel's desire to seek revenge? Will it be 10,000, 20,000, or is there any number of Palestinian lives lost that is deemed unacceptable?

Nearly two months ago, Israel gave more than 1 million people just 24 hours to leave northern Gaza and then it destroyed everything in the north including hospitals, schools, apartment buildings and even refuge camps. Now, after a brief seven-day ceasefire, it has resumed its slaughter, except this time, its focus is in the south where more than 1 million displaced people were told to seek shelter. The depths of the depravity being unleased in Gaza is unprecedented in its scale and its brutality. Having told millions of civilians to flee to the south, Israel has now divided Gaza into a grid system of 600 blocks. Every day, it drops flyers in Gaza telling civilians which grids are about to be blown off the face of the earth, however the information can only be accessed through a QR code or social media posts. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Its communication systems are in tatters. How many people have smart phones or Internet connections to check if they are about to be blown to bits?

This level of calculated and premeditated barbarism is disgusting. The fact that many western leaders are watching this, and are still refusing to directly criticise Israel, is despicable. What will it take for the international community to act? Is Israel free to unleash whatever hell it likes on more than 2 million people? Already civilians in Gaza have been murdered, mutilated, displaced, starved, and brutalised. They have all been denied all of the protections they are supposed to have under international humanitarian law. The Irish Government's words of condemnation have been stronger than most EU countries, but words are not enough. It is long past time for sanctions to be imposed on Israel. It is now three weeks since the Taoiseach told me he would get legal advice on whether Israel is in breach of the human rights clause in the EU-Israel trade agreement.

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