Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

The nightmare for the people in Gaza continues to worsen. For two years, they have been facing an Israeli genocide. More than 65,000 people have been killed, more than 20,000 children among them. Some 92% of homes have been destroyed or damaged. All the hospitals have been destroyed or damaged. Two hundred and fifty journalists have been murdered. Since March, famine has been deliberately created by Israel. Every single day, tens of people are gunned down while queuing for food. Gaza city is being invaded and people are being slaughtered. Al-Shifa Hospital, the last functioning hospital there, is now surrounded, with tanks 500 m away, all as part of a plan, consciously carried out, of ethnic cleansing.

All this horror could only be happening with the arms and money supplied by and the political support of the most powerful countries in the world. The US, Germany, Britain and many others are providing the weapons. Thousands of tonnes of these munitions have illegally gone through Irish airspace without the Irish Government doing a thing about it. In the face of this genocide, in the face of such complicity on the part of western governments, over 500 ordinary people have taken it upon themselves to try to sail to Gaza in order to break the siege and open a people's humanitarian corridor to provide aid and food to starving people.

What has been the reaction of the Israeli Government to this humanitarian initiative? It has been to label it a jihadist initiative, to refer to it as the Hamas flotilla and to call the participants terrorists. I spent two weeks in Tunis helping to prepare the flotilla. I assure the House that these are decent people from around the world who are looking to do whatever they can to try to stop the slaughter. The rhetoric being used was clearly designed to justify attacking the flotilla. On Tuesday night, 11 boats were attacked by drones, with explosive and incendiary devices and chemical substances inflicting physical damage. Yesterday, the flotilla received credible intelligence from multiple European governments that Israel is likely to escalate violent attacks on it within the next 48 hours, potentially using weapons that could sink boats and injure or kill participants.

The Tánaiste signed a joint statement on 16 September calling "on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the Flotilla" and saying, "any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the Flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability". A violent act has now taken place. As a result of the pressure exerted by the Italian workers who went on strike on Monday in support of Palestine, two naval ships have now been sent by the Italian Government to the flotilla.

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