Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I just went onto the RTÉ website and saw a headline: "Israel issues 'last' warning for Gaza City residents" to flee. Israel Katz followed that up with: "Those who remain ... will be considered terrorists and terrorist supporters." The article states:

The intensification of military operations in Gaza City has forced the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to temporarily suspend operations at its Gaza City office and relocate staff to ICRC offices in southern Gaza to ensure staff safety and operational continuity,

That is what the Palestinian people are going through. The next extract is very well put: "Accepting the plan is a disaster, rejecting it is another, there are only bitter choices here, but the plan is a Netanyahu plan articulated by Trump,". That was said by a Palestinian official familiar with Hamas's deliberations.

Trump has told Hamas it has three or four days to respond. The only person who has come out in absolute support of this 20-point peace plan is Benjamin Netanyahu, who said, "I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims." Only bad choices are in front of the Palestinian people at the moment.

The final quote is from the Taoiseach, who said that Israel must "behave within international law" over Gaza flotilla. That is it. The expectation is that they will not. We send solidarity not only to the Palestinian people but also to Senator Chris Andrews and Deputy Barry Heneghan. We dread to think what the IDF has in store for these people, who are literally trying to introduce a humanitarian corridor.

What have we seen in the last while? We have seen 66,000 Palestinians killed. We have seen famine used as a means of war. The only defence is that if they really wanted, they could kill more. One of Netanyahu's intentions, the absolutely criminal one, is to stay out of jail, so on that basis he continues the war. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have been absolutely clear about what they want, which is a greater Israel and the removal of the Palestinian people from Gaza. They are using starvation, famine and executing children as they await food aid. What can you say about people who are willing to consider this?

Our only hope is that Donald Trump gets a rush of blood to the head and falls out to some degree with Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a very said affair. The only thing that can be done from our point of view is to ensure that pressure is maintained on America and on those powers that have provided weapons to the Israeli war machine. It is absolutely disgraceful. I welcome some of the moves that have been made in Britain and Germany, but they continue to supply weapons. None of this is good enough. We need to enact the occupied territories Bill in its entirety. That means for services and not only goods. We also need to take apart the EU-Israel association agreement.

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