Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)

I will start with a quote:

What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. It's the result of government policy - knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.

They are the words of Ehud Olmert, ex-Prime Minister of Israel. The devastation in Gaza defies human comprehension. Whole neighbourhoods have been flattened, hospitals have been reduced to rubble, healthcare workers and journalists have been targeted, and famine has broken out. This is not the tragic byproduct of war; it is a planned, strategic assault on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and its attacks on Israel on 7 October were obscene but no crime, however appalling, can justify what has followed. Collective punishment with bombings, shootings and the destruction of vital health and civilian infrastructure, resulting in famine and death, is unlawful and immoral.

Since 7 October, more than 66,000 people have been killed and over 168,000 wounded in Gaza. That does not include many people who are dying in Gaza, mainly children, due to preventable illness and starvation. Many thousands are unaccounted for, entombed beneath the rubble. These are not just statistics; they are families expunged, generations extinguished and people pushed to the existential margins. What we are witnessing is not proportionate, it is not humane and it is not compatible with international law. The destruction of Gaza, brick by brick, together with the relentless spread of illegal settlements in the West Bank, is obliterating the very possibility of a Palestinian state. Let us be clear: this is ethnic cleansing in all but name. This is not simply my view; we have heard from Ehud Olmert and his view. He referred to concentration camps and war crimes. In August 2025, some 600 of the highest ranking ex-military and security officials, including former Mossad chief, Tamir Pardo, ex-Shin Bet chief, Ami Ayalon, and former Israeli deputy chief of the military, Matan Vilnai, wrote to Donald Trump to ask him to intervene and end the war. There is reported resistance, even within the Israeli army, to the continued prosecution of this abomination.

Ireland has not stood silent. While we must not appear to be self-congratulatory in the face of this horror, Ireland was among the first to recognise Palestine as a state, joined South Africa in the International Court of Justice, and has advocated consistently for a stronger international response through the EU and the UN. Today, many others, from Spain and Slovenia to partners across Europe, are following that lead but leadership is not a gesture; it is a responsibility. Futile gestures without consequences are meaningless. The EU must act by carrying out a full review of the EU-Israel trade agreement, seeking real accountability for breaches of international law and insisting unyieldingly that humanitarian aid reaches those who need it. Yet the greatest obstacle remains Israel's own leadership. Prime Minister Netanyahu has not defended Israel; he has diminished it. In tandem with the egregious assault on Gaza, he and his extreme right-wing cabinet members have undermined a two-state solution by enabling and actively encouraging illegal settlements on the West Bank. He will not be remembered as a guardian of security but as the architect of perpetual conflict; the man who extinguished the prospect of coexistence and condemned generations to bloodshed.

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