Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

For almost a year, Israel has been waging a genocidal war against Palestinians. More than 40,000 people in Gaza have been murdered. Israeli attacks on Lebanon have not just started in recent days, but rather they have been escalating over the last year. Over the last year, there have been approximately 10,000 attacks on Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 people.

Israel has now massively escalated. It is indiscriminately carpet-bombing southern Lebanon. It is consciously and openly targeting civilian homes. In the last 24 hours alone, Israel has killed in excess of 500 people and murdered more than 50 children. There are now tens of thousands of people desperately trying to flee southern Lebanon. This comes after the acts of state terrorism, in which thousands of walkie-talkies and pagers were blown up across the country, maiming and killing women, children and men.

Similar to before the genocide in Gaza, we have public statements from Israeli leaders telling the world their intent to commit war crimes. The Israeli minister for foreign affairs tweeted that any civilian living near Hezbollah weapons should leave their homes immediately for their own safety. That is an admission it is targeting people's homes in Lebanon, with exactly the same justification it used to destroy Gaza. The Israeli minister for diaspora affairs openly stated that Lebanon does not meet the definition of a country and that the border needs to be changed.

Despite war crime after war crime for a year, the US continues to send weapons to Israel to commit these war crimes. A figure of $20 billion worth of weapons was agreed just last month. Is there no line Israel cannot cross? Is a ground invasion of Lebanon coming next, an all-out regional war? Will the Minister condemn these as the war crimes they are? Will the Taoiseach call at the UN for the US to stop sending Israeli weapons? We need actions more than words. Will the Government stop blocking the occupied territories Bill? Will the Government impose sanctions on Israel? Will it tell the Israeli ambassador not to come back?

Have any of the bombs that are raining down on Lebanon passed through Irish airspace? The Taoiseach told the Dáil that no airport in Ireland or Irish sovereign airspace was being used to transport weapons to the conflict. We know now, because of The Ditch, that was untrue. At least nine flights have carried tens of tonnes of Israeli explosives, ammunition, detonators and parts for fighters through Irish airspace. Will the companies involved, which are breaching neutrality and the law, be prosecuted? Can the Minister guarantee that no other flights, other than those nine flights, have gone through Irish airspace on the way to Israel, or does the Government have a do-not-ask, do-not-tell policy?

We know now------

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