Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a very serious situation. It is incomprehensible that Israel or the IDF would put UN peacekeepers generally in harm's way and in some incidents, as the Deputy outlined, UN peacekeepers were injured as a result of such activity.

We will work in consort with the UN, with the force commander of UNIFIL in Lebanon.

We will co-ordinate our approach. I believe that the international community, through the United Nations and European Union, can collectively keep pressure on with a view to ensuring those red lines are not crossed into the future and that UNIFIL is allowed to continue to fulfil its mandate, which is a difficult and challenging mandate and has been for quite some time. Over the past 12 months, Hezbollah has been violating that mandate as well. More than 10,000 rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon into Israel with the result of up to 90,000 Israelis having to flee their homes. Likewise, in southern Lebanon, a similar number of Lebanese have had to flee their homes because of this conflict. We will do everything we possibly can in the context of UNIFIL and our peacekeepers and their safety to keep the pressure on to protect them.

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