Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

More than 25,000 - nearly 26,000 - Palestinians have been killed at this stage. Israel Katz and Benjamin Netanyahu have laid out quite straight where the Israeli regime is. Like many people, I welcomed the fact that Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Malta requested that the European Council ask for a ceasefire. You would imagine that would be straightforward, given the disaster and slaughter the Palestinian people are facing. It was not possible to deliver that, but what is possible in regard to anything next to near sanctions that will hold Israel to account?

Beyond that, we all realise the US are the only people who can move this on. While we welcome what the US has done beneficially, when it comes to this peace process, it has been absolutely disgraceful. What interaction has the Government had with the US Administration on the fact it needs to make Israel move? If we cannot get action at European Union level, can we get anything with those countries that may be of the same opinion as us? If that is not the case, we need to move alone. The Government needs to voice that it supports what the South Africans are doing to ensure genocide is not continued, which, as we all know, is happening daily.

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