Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

After 20 months of bombing, more than 50,000 people have now been killed in Gaza. A further 117,000 have been injured, thousands of them children. What we are witnessing is a genocide, and we do not use that term lightly.

It is in truth a systematic extermination of the Palestinian people through bombardment tactics by Israel and now through starvation tactics as well, as we have seen a denial of all aid into the Gaza Strip for 71 days and a man-made famine taking hold. Today at 1 o'clock, my colleague Senator Cosgrove hosted a briefing in Leinster House with Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine. Its call was simple: put words into actions. The Taoiseach rightly accused Israel of committing a war crime over the blockage of aid from entering Gaza, but where there are clear breaches of international law, then we must do all in our power to hold those committing those breaches to account. When will see stronger action from the Government on this and in particular, when will we see the passage of the occupied territories Bill upon which we all united previously?

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