Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is hard to find words sufficient for the topic before us. It is hard to describe the immense suffering, physical and psychological, that civilian Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have endured for more than 19 months: to never feel safe; to be uprooted time and time again; to feel the desperation that comes from not being able to find food for your children; to see your elderly parents and grandparents suffer rather than having the comfort and dignity that should come with age; to carry your disabled child mile after mile to get the care they need; to have your home and everything you own and have built over the course of a lifetime wiped from the earth in a single moment; to dig your loved one from the rubble with your bare hands; to see your family, your neighbours, your colleagues, your friends injured, maimed and killed, your neighbourhood laid waste to; to be subject to constant surveillance and the intrusive overhead buzzing of drones; to see hospitals destroyed and exhausted medics struggle on without supplies adequate to the needs of their desperate patients; to see humanitarian workers - ambulance drivers, paramedics - targeted and killed; and to see journalists trying to tell the world what is happening struck down. It is hard to imagine. It is hard to describe. It is hard to see it on our television night after night. How much harder must it be to endure?

I have been clear on many, many occasions that what happened in Israel on 7 October 2023 was an horrific and brutal attack on an innocent civilian population. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could possibly justify it. I saw the aftermath for myself when I visited Kibbutz Be'eri. We all saw the horrific pictures of young people fleeing for their lives from a music festival and young women being brutally manhandled and shoved into cars and taken hostage. Let us not forget that a young Irish-Israeli citizen, Kim Damti, was murdered. Let us not forget that a young Irish-Israeli child, Emily Hand, was abducted from a sleepover and held hostage for 50 days. Let us not forget that Israeli families still wait for loved ones held hostage to come home, after 19 inexpressibly cruel months.

These are truly unspeakable and despicable crimes.

Hamas is responsible and must be accountable but let us remember also that those crimes were not perpetrated by the civilian population of Gaza, which has borne the brunt of the overwhelming Israeli response day after day, week after week, month after month, with only a short ceasefire of respite. Ireland is a small country but I hope it is one with a strong moral compass. Irish people know that what has happened in Gaza over the past 19 months is wrong in a fundamental way. It is not just a question of international humanitarian law, international treaties and conventions or UN charters and resolutions, although they are all important. To inflict this level of suffering on a civilian population with nowhere else to go is just wrong morally and legally. It is an affront to human decency. It is without mercy, compassion or a shared sense of humanity. It has to stop.

Ireland has not been and will not be silent in the face of what is happening in Gaza. Together with Norway and Spain, we recognised the State of Palestine 12 months ago this weekend. We did so because we believe that the people of Palestine and the people of Israel both deserve to live in peace and security, side by side. The Government will continue to do all we can to realise that goal, however distant it may seem from today’s grim perspective. Let us be honest about where we are - rather than working for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the surging of humanitarian aid into Gaza, as leaders from all parts of the world have called for, Israel this week launched a further military ground operation in the Gaza Strip, compounding an already dire situation. After a blockade of aid lasting months, the World Food Programme said its food stocks in Gaza are depleted and UNICEF warned that children are experiencing severe malnutrition. One in five Gazans is at risk of famine. The UN has been forced to shut down most of its humanitarian work in Gaza at a time when it has never been more desperately needed. UNRWA is unable to carry out its vital mission. The United Nations head of humanitarian aid said that unless aid reaches them, 14,000 babies could die in 48 hours, a statistic so shocking it is almost hard to think about. The dribble of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza in recent days is completely inadequate. Its plan to take control of the supply and distribution of aid does not offer a credible way to address the appalling deficits. Rather, as the UN has described it, it is “designed to further control and restrict supplies”. I welcome the statement from High Representative Ms Kallas and Commissioners Šuica and Lahbib in which they expressed their concerns about this proposed delivery mechanism. I urge Israel to listen to the voices of the international community demanding the full restoration of aid - do it properly, now.

Last week, I joined my counterparts from Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Malta and Slovenia in calling on the Government of Israel to immediately reverse its current policy, to refrain from further military operations and to fully lift the blockade. We were clear that the safe, rapid and unimpeded distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza has to be undertaken by international humanitarian actors according to humanitarian principles. The obstruction of life-saving aid by Israel is a clear violation of its international obligations. So too would be the large-scale displacement of the population were Israel to put plans to move Gaza's population to the south of the Gaza Strip into action. More than 90% of the population has already been displaced, some up to 13 times. Ireland, with European Union and international partners, has been clear that there can be no forced displacement of the civilian population in Gaza. There can be no occupation of the strip by Israel. Let nobody say they did not know what the plan was. The Minister for Finance in Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, has spoken openly of conquering Gaza, destroying everything that remains of the Strip and pushing the population south, he said, "with God's help, to the third countries." He said a trickle of aid will be let in so "that the world does not stop us and accuse of war crimes." This is from a senior Israeli Government Minister. I am also deeply concerned about the situation in the West Bank, where Israel is conducting its longest operation in 20 years. At least 40,000 people have been displaced. Combined with unprecedented levels of violence and record levels of settlement construction, there is huge risk of further destabilisation. Ireland, alongside its European Union partners, is strongly opposed to Israel's settlement policy and activities, including in and around east Jerusalem. We call on Israel to immediately bring them to an end. The situation of the civilian population in Gaza is desperate but we cannot allow despair, or worse, indifference, to be our response. We must continue to do all we can to bring about a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the relief of their suffering. We will continue to work with like-minded partners, including in the region, to build a political process that can deliver peace and security for Palestine and Israel - two states, the only sustainable solution. We will pursue that goal, including though the global alliance for the implementation of the two-state solution. We will participate actively in the international conference on implementing the two-state solution at the United Nations which Saudi Arabia and France will co-chair in June. We hope it will be a decisive moment for the international community - we urgently need to find a new positivity and direction.

I welcome yesterday’s decision to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement to examine Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations. It is a step that is long overdue. Operation of the agreement should now be suspended immediately, pending the outcome, as a sign that there can be no business as usual. I expect the review to be carried out expeditiously and effectively and to have meaningful consequences. Human rights clauses have to mean something. In keeping with our commitment in the programme for Government, we will continue to progress work on fit-for-purpose legislation to prohibit settlement goods from the occupied Palestinian territories. We will do so in a way that is in line with the Constitution, limits the risk of EU infringement procedures and takes account of the wider context. We welcome the recent agreement among Arab countries on a joint plan for the reconstruction of Gaza. We will do what we can to support and drive it forward. The Arab-led plan provides that Palestinian ownership must be a guiding principle in reconstruction and that the right of Palestinians to remain on their own land must be upheld. We will work with partners to support a reformed Palestinian Authority so that Palestinians can take responsibility for their own affairs. There can be no role for Hamas.

After 19 long and brutal months of war on the people of Gaza, I believe we are at a turning point. Increasingly, some of Israel’s closest allies are calling on it to change course. I urge Israel to listen not just in the interests of the people of Gaza but in its own interests. This is not who the people of Israel are. Even in these times of divided politics, I know there is a strong consensus in this House and indeed in the country at large on the urgency of the situation and the need to find a better way forward and a credible political path to peace for the people of Palestine. Like their neighbours in Israel, they are entitled and deserve to live in peace and security in their own state. We know from our own history how long and difficult the road to lasting peace and justice can be but we are resolute and unwavering in our commitment to walking that path with those dedicated to the same goals. Let that be the united message we send from today’s debate. I am sharing time with the Tánaiste.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We gather for these statements today with warnings ringing in our ears that thousands of children are at risk of death in the coming days. According to UNICEF, more than 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed, more than 34,000 injured and nearly 1 million displaced. Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world and 17,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their parents. Beyond this vast physical harm, the psychological trauma inflicted will take generations to heal.

No child will emerge from the horrors of bombardment without the imprint of trauma. We are witnessing enforced starvation afflicting the most vulnerable while humanitarian aid remains blocked by Israeli forces.

Three months ago, four Irish Aid trucks arrived in Jordan just as the Israeli blockade began. Carrying the potential to assist thousands of people, these trucks today remain in a warehouse in Jordan while people starve. They are among 44,000 aid trucks that have been denied entry since March, while there are no functioning public hospitals and thousands upon thousands of people have been displaced.

Faced with the unconscionable plight of the people of Gaza, any words or actions that cannot immediately bring this suffering to an end seem, and are, inadequate. What is happening goes against our very humanity. It goes against the strongly held values of the people of Ireland. It goes against the desire for peace, stability and security. A failure by the international community to respond to this moment is also a rebuke to multilateralism, international law and the universal applicability of human rights, both at home and across the world.

The convictions and values we hold dear have emerged from our own history of conflict and peacebuilding on this island. We also have long-standing engagement in the Middle East region through our diplomatic missions and the presence of peacekeepers in Lebanon. The images we have been witnessing in Gaza for the past 600 days are an affront to these convictions and an absolute indictment of a collective failure to end it. More than 18 months of bombardment has caused total destruction that can be difficult to comprehend, now compounded by the almost 80 days of an Israeli blockade of vital and life-saving humanitarian aid.

A total of 58 hostages still remain in Gaza, whose families are enduring continuing anguish. The Irish people, and most of the world, are asking what it will take for the world to do more and act. This is a moment for clarity. Therefore, let me clearly restate Ireland’s position. We unequivocally condemn the terror attacks by Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023. We unequivocally condemn the taking of hostages by Hamas and have repeatedly called for their release. We do so again today. Hamas has brought nothing but death and destruction to the people of the region. It offers no positive future. We strongly condemn the continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza and are alarmed at reports that Israel plans to extend further this violence and killing.

We have used every lever at Ireland’s disposal and we will continue to do so, both through building on the progress achieved yesterday with the achievement of majority support for a review of the EU-Israel association agreement and through our own legislation to prohibit imports from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, which we will now bring forward. While I will speak in more detail on these actions later, I can inform the House today that work on this legislation is well progressed within my Department. It is my intention to bring a memorandum to Government on this next week.

We call on Israel to fully lift its blockade and allow for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid at scale into Gaza. We must see further sanctions if Israel does not end this military offensive. We call for urgent efforts to ensure an immediate ceasefire. Of course, we call for the release of all remaining hostages.

The situation for Gazans today is worse than it has been at any point. In excess of 52,000 people have been killed. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described Israel’s actions as “aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group.”. A fragile and imperfect ceasefire at the start of the year, which provided a brief glimmer of hope to Israelis and Palestinians alike, has been replaced by the resumption of further Israeli actions that have brought fresh suffering to the people of Gaza. Israel unilaterally imposed a total blockage on all aid and commercial supplies for almost 80 days. That meant no food, medicines, medical devices, clothing or sanitary products. While minimal supplies are now entering Gaza in the past 24 hours, this is a miniscule drop in the ocean. The entire population is facing high levels of food insecurity, with one in five - 500,000 people - facing starvation.

Famine is a spectre no Irish person can endure. Only an immediate end to hostilities and a full, unimpeded resumption of humanitarian aid delivery can prevent a further descent into that grim reality for Gazans. The Israeli security cabinet has decided to take control of the distribution of humanitarian aid through private contractors. The UN has rightly described this as unacceptable and "designed to further control and restrict supplies”. Along with many others, I strongly condemn a system that does not ensure that the entire population gets access to humanitarian aid.

On Monday, with colleagues from 21 countries in the EU, I urgently called again for immediate and unhindered access to humanitarian aid and for the killing to stop. I concur with the words of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, that Israel’s plan “makes starvation a bargaining chip”. This is another example of Israel's conduct that is clearly at odds with human rights and international law. It is repugnant. It is a further example of war crimes.

Amid this darkness, I pay tribute to the humanitarians who continue to save lives every day and work in unspeakable conditions. The year 2024 was the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers, a surge driven by the war in Gaza, which has killed almost 300 UNRWA staff alone. The attack on 15 Red Crescent ambulance staff starkly illustrated the immense risks these humanitarians run every day in the course of their work.

Ireland has been principled and consistent in our approach to this dire situation. We are using all the tools at our disposal, be they political, legal, diplomatic or humanitarian, in response to this dreadful conflict. Next week will mark one year since Ireland, in tandem with Norway and Spain, recognised the State of Palestine. The decision was about keeping the hope for a peaceful two-state solution alive and about the right of Palestinians to self-determination, self-governance and territorial integrity and sovereignty. It was about believing that the two-state solution is the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side. Since then, Ireland has consistently raised our voice in pursuit of the two-state solution. In September 2024, we joined the global alliance for the implementation of the two-state solution during the UN General Assembly high-level week in New York. This is a key diplomatic platform for advancing meaningful progress towards peace in the Middle East and advancing the two-state solution.

Even though established political thinking in Israel is absolutely hostile to this goal, international momentum is building. Ireland is taking a leading role in the work and evolution of the global alliance, including as part of the so-called Madrid group, which is a core group of European, Arab, and Islamic countries particularly concerned by the catastrophic situation in Gaza. The global momentum building around this work is visible in the upcoming high-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, which will be co-chaired, as the Taoiseach said, by France and Saudi Arabia at the UN in New York in June. Ireland will play an active role in the conference and we hope it will be a decisive moment for the international community.

Ireland continually seeks to build alliances to address the horror of what is happening on the ground in Gaza. Two weeks ago, I issued a joint statement with my counterparts from Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain expressing concern about Israeli plans for further expansion of military actions in Gaza. We outlined our firm rejection of any demographic or territorial change in Gaza and called on Israel to show restraint and co-operate with the UN and other humanitarian organisations in the unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance. On 6 May, the Dutch foreign minister wrote to the UN High Representative, Kaja Kallas, calling for a review of the EU-Israel association agreement in light of Israel’s blockade in Gaza and other developments on the ground.

Ireland has consistently called for a meaningful interpretation of Israel’s human rights obligations under the agreement. We welcome this initiative from the Netherlands. As this House will recall, Ireland and Spain wrote to the President of the European Commission in February 2024 requesting this urgent review. In all my engagements at the Foreign Affairs Council, we have repeatedly called for the EU to take this step. At the time, our proposal did not enjoy the support of all EU partners. The fact there is now a clear majority of support shows a significant shift at European level.

The EU review of the association agreement with Israel is a significant decision. As the Taoiseach rightly said, however, it should now be suspended pending the outcome of that review. This would reflect the grave concern held by citizens in Ireland and across the European Union regarding the ongoing horrific situation and actions of Israel and the blockade of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. It also demonstrates that a clear majority of member states have now agreed on the need to take concrete actions to pressure Israel to reverse course, halt its military action and lift the block on life-saving aid in Gaza. This is about using the tools set out in the association agreement, in conformity with our values, and conveying clear messages to Israel regarding the EU’s position. This was also the case in February, when Ireland welcomed the convening of the EU-Israel Association Council as an opportunity to deliver that same message.

From the outset, Ireland has been clear that we would not accept a business-as-usual approach to relations between Israel and the EU. In my intervention at that meeting, I underlined that each of the EU’s bilateral relationships must be grounded in respect for international law and our fundamental principles. I expressed grave concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and underlined the EU’s call for full and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and, of course, the release of remaining hostages. We have made clear that we will reject any attempt at demographic or territorial changes in the Gaza Strip and stressed the importance of unifying Gaza with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

I was also pleased to attend the first ever EU-Palestine high level dialogue in Luxembourg in April. This dialogue provided an opportunity for the first time for the EU to engage at this level with the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, whom I met last February in Munich. At that meeting we took concrete actions to financially support the Palestinian Authority and we commend the progress it is making in what is an extremely challenging environment. Ireland maintains strong channels of communication with the Palestinian Authority, including through our mission in Ramallah and the Palestinian Embassy in Dublin. As well as providing funding to the authority through the EU, Ireland also provides practical support to the Palestinian Authority on the ground, including in institutional capacity-building. Together with a number of other donors, we also support the Palestinian Authority’s ministry for education to strengthen the education system and help to ensure more children can access education.

Ireland welcomed the recent agreement among Arab countries on a joint plan for the reconstruction of Gaza. We must continue to work towards this aim. Ireland has consistently stressed that the governance of Gaza must involve the Palestinian Authority. There can be and will be no role for Hamas, which offers the people of Gaza no future. The Arab-led plan provides that Palestinian ownership must be a guiding principle in reconstruction efforts and that the right of Palestinians to remain on their own land must be upheld. Ireland, the EU and international partners have been clear that there can be no forced displacement of the civilian population in Gaza, nor any occupation of the strip by Israel. However, first we need a ceasefire and a permanent cessation of the hostilities.

While the focus of this debate is on Gaza we cannot lose sight of the situation unfolding in the West Bank, where Israel is conducting its single largest operation in 20 years. At least 40,000 people have been displaced since January. Combined with unprecedented levels of violence and record levels of settlement construction, there is a huge risk of further destabilisation. Ireland is strongly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy and activities, including in and around East Jerusalem. This is a point I raised directly with Israel at the association council. We strongly support the sanctions adopted by the EU against both individuals and entities involved in settler violence and we continue to call for the imposition of further EU sanctions.

What is happening in Gaza and in the West Bank should not be taken in isolation. This is meticulously planned Israeli Government policy. It is illegal. It is unconscionable. It is inhuman. This brings me back to the issue of settlement trade. The Government’s position, and indeed that of the EU, is clear, namely, settlements are illegal under international law and undermine the realisation of the two-state solution. As this House will be aware, the Government carried out an extensive analysis and review of the occupied territories Bill late last year. The Government’s analysis was that substantive amendments would be required to most, if not all, of the Bill’s provisions in order to bring it in line with our Constitution and to reduce the risk of EU infringement procedures. We want a Bill that will withstand the test of legal challenge. We want a Bill that will make impact. The programme for Government sets out a clear commitment to progress legislation in relation to the occupied Palestinian territory and aligned with the July 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion. As I said earlier, we now intend to advance this commitment.

Respect for international law is at the core of Ireland’s foreign policy. Ireland has consistently stated this and consistently called on Israel to comply with international law. International law must apply to all countries. We have stressed the universal applicability of international law, including humanitarian law. This commitment has been backed by focused action at bilateral and multilateral level and in international legal proceedings. In 2023 and 2024, Ireland participated in advisory proceedings at the International Court of Justice concerning the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories. The court’s advisory opinion in that case largely confirmed Ireland’s legal analysis, as outlined in our submissions to the court, that Israel’s settlement and related policies in the occupied Palestinian territory amount to illegal annexation. On 6 January, Ireland filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention. A declaration of intervention was also filed in Gambia's case against Myanmar on 20 December 2024. The purpose of both interventions is for Ireland to set out the factors it considers relevant in assessing whether a state is fulfilling its obligations under the Genocide Convention. On 28 February this year Ireland filed a detailed written submission with the ICJ in advisory proceedings concerning the obligations of Israel in relation to the UN and other international organisations, as well as states, in the occupied Palestinian territories. These proceedings arose from a UN General Assembly resolution Ireland co-sponsored in December 2024 following the adoption in October 2024 of legislation by the Israeli Parliament which, in effect, prohibits the presence and activities of UNRWA.

While Ireland’s submissions have been published by the court, and I encourage colleagues to read them, I would like to briefly update the House on the legal arguments made in our detailed written statement, which was prepared by my Department in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. We argue Israel is legally required, under international humanitarian law and as a member of the United Nations, to co-operate with and facilitate relevant UN agencies and programmes in the provision of essential humanitarian assistance and services to the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied territories, in particular those of UNRWA, as a subsidiary organ of the UN. In addition to this unprecedented level of activity by Ireland at the International Court of Justice, Ireland continues to press for action at EU level in light of the ICJ’s advisory opinion, including at all our interventions at the Foreign Affairs Council and by the Taoiseach at the European Council.

This is just a summary of the practical actions Ireland is taking in response to this most horrific situation, but we must and will do more. Until hunger in Gaza is consigned to memory, until all remaining hostages are back with their families, until hospitals and schools in Gaza are functioning, until the hopes of Palestinian children turn into their realities and until we see two states - Israel and Palestine - coexisting in peace and security, Ireland will double down. We will not rest. We will provide financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. We will bring forward our own legislation on the occupied Palestinian territories. We will seek a suspension of the association agreement between the EU and Israel. We will work at the International Court of Justice. We will support UNRWA when others turn their back on the organisation. We will do everything we possibly can to let the Palestinian people know that they are seen, that they are heard and that they are not forgotten. We will continue to represent the convictions of the people of this country and the democratic values on which this State was built. We will continue to fight for peace and for an end to the barbaric cruelty being endured by the people of Gaza at the hands of an Israeli Government engaged in war crimes. We will continue to urge the international community to vindicate our collective responsibility to stand up for the supremacy of human rights always.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Before we move to Deputy McDonald, I acknowledge the presence of the Palestinian ambassador in the Public Gallery. You are very welcome.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat as sin. Cuirim fáilte freisin roimh H. E. Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid. You are very welcome, madam ambassador, and we are honoured to have you here.

Today we stand with the Gazan people, who face annihilation. Entire families have been wiped out. Millions have been displaced from their homes and schools and hospitals have been obliterated. They are now starving and blockaded on all sides. Some 14,000 children are on the brink of starvation. There have been 11 weeks of a blockade of food, a blockade of water and a blockade on medicines. More than 500 have been killed in a matter of days. Humanitarian aid has been used as a weapon of war and there has been collective punishment again against the Palestinian people. The siege is continuing. Not an ounce of food or a drop of water has been distributed. The bombardment and killing is continuing as the air and ground offensives intensify. The mass displacement of the people of Gaza is continuing.

All of this is carried out in full sight of the world and in full sight of international leaders. They see the carnage, the collective punishment, the starvation and the mass displacement. All are breaches of international law. They have long known that Israel, an occupying power, imposes an apartheid regime. All of this suffering Israel is responsible for and Israel must be held to account. Its actions are not simply wrong, but are criminal. They are genocidal. Israel continues to act with impunity because, very simply, it can. Major Western powers are not alone turning a blind eye; they are protecting Israel from any meaningful sanctions and they are continuing to fund and sell arms to Israel. They are complicit in every single thing that is happening. The EU now reviews its trade agreement with Israel. Britain has suspended trade talks with it. This is very little and very late. We need much more. We need action. We need sanctions. We need an end to the arming and funding of Israel's war machine. Today my colleague and First Minister in the North Michelle O’Neill has written to the British Prime Minister demanding that Britain end the export of arms to Israel. The British Government has a legal and a moral obligation to stop arming Israel when there is a clear and obvious risk that these weapons are being used to slaughter Palestinian children.

That obligation applies to the United States of America and to European powers that are funding and generating a genocide. Stop it. Stop that now. Ireland also needs to act because words are not enough - neither weasel words nor carefully crafted platitudes - as a refugee population is being decimated. Calls for restraint will not cut it either. Action is needed. Sanctions are needed.

Today Deputy Pearse Doherty and I have brought forward legislation to stop Ireland's involvement in the sale of Israeli war bonds, which are used to fund the genocide in Palestine. It is going to be debated in the Dáil next week. It is utterly unacceptable - an obscenity in fact - that the Irish Central Bank oversees the sale of Israeli war bonds right across the EU. It is completely at odds with Ireland's position in respect of humanitarian standards and international law; a position that is against occupation, terror and genocide. Yet when I raised this with the Taoiseach yesterday, his response was to call our legislation "repulsive". That is the word he used.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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On point of order, I did not say that.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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What is truly repulsive is allowing the Irish Central Bank to oversee the sale of Israeli war bonds that are funding this genocide.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is misleading the House. That is not right, now.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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If the Government is serious and sincere, it will back our Bill and stand with Palestine. If you are really serious, Tánaiste, about recognising and respecting the convictions of the people of Ireland, if you are serious about doing everything as you say within your reach, and if you are serious about ending the clear barbarism that we watch every day in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank, you will back our Bill and of course you will also pass the occupied territories Bill. Ireland's history speaks powerfully to us and it demands that we speak out. It demands that we act in defence of Palestine and in defence of refugee populations that have been brutalised not for weeks or for months but for decades. That barbarity has now escalated to genocide itself. The Irish Central Bank should not and cannot be facilitating that genocide through the sale of Israeli war bonds. I challenge every Member of this House and every person of conscience to stand with the Palestinians and against genocide, and to back our legislation when it comes to the House next week.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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On a point of order, the Deputy misled the House when she said that I described the tabling of Sinn Féin's legislation as "repulsive". I said no such thing. I would ask the Deputy to withdraw that given the seriousness of the debate. This is a very serious debate involving lives and it is not good enough that the Deputy would falsely make that assertion. I did not say that and she knows I did not say that. I ask the Deputy to withdraw it.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Does Deputy McDonald withdraw that remark?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I cannot withdraw it because the record of this House will reflect that fact that the word that was used across the Chamber to me was the word "repulsive."

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is very easy to check.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach is using our time.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy said that the Government is funding a genocide and I said that phrase was morally repugnant. At no stage did I say the tabling of legislation in respect of the Central Bank was repulsive. You know that. Why did you conflate the two to make a false statement? I would ask you to withdraw.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Why is the Taoiseach using our speaking time with this nonsense?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I ask you to withdraw.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I am not withdrawing it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It was a smear against me.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I am not withdrawing a remark that you made.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It was a smear against the Taoiseach.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We will leave it at that and move on to Deputy Ó Laoghaire.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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No sincerity.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Is the clock being brought back?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Four and a half minutes, I think; okay. The Taoiseach in his opening speech said that it is difficult to find words for the human suffering. That is true, it is difficult to find words. It is difficult to find words for the scale of it. When before in any international situation could we have ever imagined a UN official talking about 14,000 babies potentially facing starvation within 48 hours? Can we think of any precedent that even casts the tiniest shadow on a statement like that? There is no comparison. There is no comparison for the total destruction of Gaza in terms of hospitals, schools, refugee camps and bombs raining down on innocent civilians in their tens of thousands. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days. The potential for a ceasefire is a distant shadow at this stage. Dozens of children have died in that time. It is difficult to find the words for the scale. We are talking about 14,000 babies dying, that level of starvation. This is no flood, hurricane or crop failure. It is a result of a deliberate decision to starve people and deny them essential medical equipment and food. It is based on deeply malicious intent to punish a civilian population.

If it is difficult to find words in terms of scale, it is even more difficult to find words in terms of the individual and the pain, with families completely wiped out, children left without anybody in the world, communities wiped out, with their histories, their stories and everyone belonging to them completely gone. I refer to the pain mothers and fathers must feel and the pain children must feel when they think of their parents and everyone belonging to them now gone. I extend that point to say that pain exists for every human. Like the Taoiseach, I condemn the attacks on 7 October and the pain their relatives felt. There is no justification for that either but how could that occasion this level of collective punishment on a civilian population on a scale we can hardly imagine? Out of 35 hospitals, 33 are damaged. These are the very hospitals that are trying to deal with the carnage, the bombings, the starvation and every possible kind of human suffering off the back of that. These hospitals are struggling to survive. Maybe we struggle to find words. Some words do matter; I will say that too. "War crimes" - it matters to say that. It also matters to say "genocide".

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I think many people would have baulked and would have found that word highly charged, but it is difficult to dispute that there is an intent to effectively destroy Gaza and the people of Gaza as a people.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Words matter, but actions matter more. I welcome the progress on the EU association agreement, which is something we called for. There is a lot more that is needed. On the occupied territories Bill, I think at one stage the Taoiseach understood why that was a logical conclusion of the International Court of Justice decision. It is about the fact that settlements are illegal and require consequences. There is no distinction between goods and services in the judgment. The Tánaiste should not make a distinction either.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Let us be frank. The future survival of Gaza - its actual existence, as well as that of its people - is at stake. That is not hyperbole. I wish it was. I urge the Tánaiste to issue strong words, yes. Strong statements matter but, by God, actions matter a lot more. Are there more actions we can take that we are not taking? There certainly are.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, can you clarify how much time I have?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Two and a half minutes.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat. A Thánaiste, 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if food is not allowed into Gaza, according to the UN. The Tánaiste will have seen those figures. We have all seen them just as we have all seen the pictures and the video footage of harrowingly gaunt faces, bodies down to skin and bones, and bodies consuming their own muscle tissue and organs as they try desperately to avoid starvation and stay alive. One of the greatest crimes against humanity is playing out before our eyes in real time. The best some of the western leaders have to offer is hand-wringing and words of condemnation which never evolve into meaningful action. No normal state would ever carry out such atrocities against defenceless civilians. Terms like "rogue state" just do not do justice to the evil that is being perpetrated. The cowardice in the face of this great evil is one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen in my life. At the same time, we have to take hope from the tremendous courage of citizens across the world, including here in Ireland.

We have to take hope from people who know that we can do more and that we must do more. We must stop the use of Shannon Airport, stop the use of our airspace, enact the occupied territories Bill and stop the facilitation of Israeli war bonds.

Women have always been to the fore of this activism. Women like the workers in Dunnes Stores who stood up against South African apartheid. We have seen the tremendous activism of the Mothers Against Genocide as they have consistently protested throughout this genocide. Only a few days ago, we saw three women protest at the continued use of Shannon Airport. In a statement, they clearly said they wished they did not have to do this but the inaction of our Government makes them complicit in the genocide in Palestine and they cannot let this go on. They were arrested and detained as a result of this. They want the planes searched. I want the planes searched.

The Tánaiste cannot control what other world leaders do. He can only control what he can do and what his Department does, so pass the occupied territories Bill and bring in sanctions now. Enough of the empty words.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Gaza needs aid. Gaza needs a ceasefire. Israel needs sanctions. That may be a very simplistic message but that is what is needed right now. Israel has displaced the people of Gaza. Israel has murdered the people of Gaza. Israel has starved the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza are being ethnically cleansed right before our very eyes. If you do not believe me, believe the words of Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. He said Israel is going to occupy the Gaza Strip. He then predicted that Gaza would be totally destroyed within a matter of months. He has vowed that the aid entering Gaza would be the minimum necessary to ensure the world did not stop them and accuse them of war crimes. Imagine that. He went on to say Israel will destroy everything that still remains in Gaza. That is straight out of the mouth of the Israeli finance minister. That is straight out of the mouth of a genocidal maniac. If any world leader made such statements and carried out such policies against any other people, there would be sanctions. There would be arms embargoes. There would be diplomatic consequences. Instead, there is silence and inaction.

Yesterday, the United Nations warned that 14,000 babies in Gaza are at risk of dying in the next 48 hours. If emergency aid and medical access are not immediately restored, 14,000 babies will die. These are not military casualties. These are babies. They are starved, dehydrated and critically ill. Their deaths will not be tragic accidents. They will be deliberate consequences of Israel's genocidal policies and international inaction. There have been small, but welcome, moves by the EU to review trade ties but the people of Gaza simply do not have time for reviews. They need action. Israel needs sanctions. That is the only way it will stop its genocidal atrocities on the people of Gaza.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Right-thinking people are horrified at what they are seeing in Gaza. It is difficult to comprehend the barbarity. It is even more difficult to see it on your TV screen. Right-thinking people are ashamed of their leaders, many of whom are standing idly by as we see the intentional destruction of healthcare by Israel, the obstruction of medical supplies and humanitarian aid, the slaughter of children and the extent to which Israel has normalised the bombing of hospitals. There was a time it pretended it was an accident.

Last week in the audiovisual room, prominent Palestinian human rights defender, Mahmoud Nawajaa, acknowledged Irish efforts but said it is not enough. We need sanctions with impact. We need the enactment of the occupied territories Bill, the enactment of the divestment Bill and the enactment of the war bonds Bill. We need actions, not statements, on Gaza.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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In Gaza, we see a situation so dire, it defies comprehension. An Oxfam worker with 20 years of experience working in conflict zones worldwide has said he has never seen anything like this. Children in Gaza are being starved. Israel has blocked all aid supplies from entering, leaving millions to go hungry for the past 11 weeks. It is genocide. That is what is happening and yet most of the world remains silent as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds.

Women and children make up the majority of those killed. Nearly every piece of infrastructure has been levelled. People are being displaced all the time. Places where people are told to seek safety turn out to be death traps. The childhoods of the children of Gaza are being destroyed and they have lost entire families. More than 20,000 children have been killed, with many left with injuries that cannot be properly treated. Day in, day out Palestinians are being massacred by Israel using military grade weapons on tents, burning children to death. Apache helicopters are deliberately targeting and shooting fleeing families. The world has failed the people of Palestine. The European Union has failed the people of Palestine. What haunts the Palestinian people is not just famine; it is also the fear of outsiders arriving under the guise of aid to then start laying the foundations of colonisation and using the weaponisation of food.

Israel must be stopped now. They are the Nazis of the modern world. It is a disgusting, Zionist regime of supremacist beings who attack everyone who stands against them as anti-Semitic. Most of the world is just plain sick of this victimhood and right of entitlement to slaughter the Palestinian people at will. The people of Palestine will liberate their land because it is their land. In Ireland, we need to do more. The Taoiseach is not using all the tools at his disposal. Get off your backsides and stop the mealy-mouthed pretence of horror. At the very least, enact the occupied territories Bill.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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After the longest blockade yet, Israel is starving the population in Gaza. Israel brazenly continues its airstrikes and full-scale ground offensive, advancing its openly stated imperial imperative of the total occupation of the Gaza Strip, regardless of the human cost. Yet, our Government still places zero sanctions. Ireland, a State with a proud history of principled neutrality and human rights, is instead enabling this destruction. We are literally fuelling the war machine. We are selling bonds that finance the war machine. We are exporting parts that become components of the war machine. We are a privileged trading partner and there is no question that it makes us complicit in genocide.

It is against this shameful backdrop that the May Day three and Operation Sound the Siren from Palestine Action Éire took matters into their own hands. Fed up with Government inaction and hollow statements, they attempted to inspect military aircraft landed at Shannon Airport for weapons being carried illegally through Irish airspace. They did this because the Government refuses to enforce its own laws.

Ní cóir go mbeadh ar mhná na hÉireann teacht chuige seo. Níl muintir na hÉireann ag iarraidh go n-úsáidfear ár n-aerspás chun airm a iompar le haghaidh coireanna in aghaidh na daonnachta. Ar feadh blianta anois, tá daoine ag máirseáil, ag síniú achainí agus ag cur brú ar ár gcuid ionadaithe poiblí ach fós níl tada tar éis tarlú. Níl sé ceart go dtiteann an t-ualach ar roinnt saoránach cróga chun seasamh suas le haghaidh luachanna na hÉireann. Teastaíonn gníomhartha ón Rialtas ar son thoil mhuintir na hÉireann anois seachas amárach ná an mhí seo chugainn.

Why should it come to this? The Irish people have made themselves clear. We do not want our skies used to ferry munitions for crimes against humanity. It should not fall to a few brave citizens to take personal risks in order to uphold our values and our laws. The Government needs to act now; not tomorrow, not next month.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I listened to the statements from the EU leaders and what I heard is that this genocide has become so horrific for those who supported the slaughter, agreed that withholding food and water could be used as a weapon of war, supplied the weapons and bombs to target the Palestinians and provided political cover for this genocidal regime talked about trade agreements yesterday for the first time. I am sure the Israeli apartheid regime is quaking in its boots at such mealy-mouthed words.

What tipped them over the edge? Was it that they just want to cover their own arses because of their support for this genocide? Was it the 60,000 dead men, women and children? Was it the horrific murder of 15 humanitarian workers? Just yesterday, a 15-year-old boy who witnessed that murder was shot dead by an Israeli sniper. Was it the destruction of all the hospitals, the schools, or water, electricity and sewage infrastructure? Was it the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank? They were nowhere near Hamas, nowhere near Gaza. Was it this happening with the full support of the police, military, political and judicial systems in Israel?

Information has come out that 14,000 children are potentially going to die of malnutrition within 48 hours. Just think of that number - 14,000 children. I do not know what moved them to make the statement. This Government - in fairness, I will give it to it - has moved a bit further with words than EU leaders.

Unfortunately, words are not enough. The people of Palestine need action now. They need the end of the military support by EU countries, militaries that many on the Government benches want us to join in some sort of military alliance in the future, which would make us complicit in all of this. We need to expel the ambassadors across the EU, end all trade with this murderous regime, and when the war is over, because all wars end, all of the political and military figures and all of the people who supported this genocide need to end up in court and in jail.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I send my solidarity to the people of Palestine. I condemn the Israeli genocide and the ongoing starvation of the people of Gaza. A blockade is preventing humanitarian aid from being brought in and it is certain that thousands more men, women and children will die. These deaths are entirely preventable. We cannot turn our eyes away. Every day, we are reminded by people living in Gaza that we must not look away and that we must not stop talking about Palestine, but it is hard to look at children being slaughtered. It is hard to see their emaciated bodies. Of course we want to turn away. It is hard to see parents with their children's remains in bits in plastic bags, but still, we cannot look away. There must be a full and immediate ceasefire.

We condemn the commentary of Benjamin Netanyahu about the ceasefire, when he said that the Israeli military will enter Gaza "with full force". Jesus Christ. What is "with full force" going to mean when we have seen the brutality that regime is capable of? Nobody is saying that the Government is doing nothing, but where the Government can do more, it must do more. It could start by passing the occupied territories Bill in full, not a watered-down version of it. It could give its support to an Teachta Pearse Doherty's legislation to end the sale of Israeli war bonds. It could stop warplanes using Shannon. As I came into the Chamber, I read on my phone that Israel has fired warning shots at a delegation visiting the Jenin refugee camp.

Israel blockades and commits genocide because there are no consequences. There must be consequences for the actions of the Israeli genocidal regime. In Ireland, we have a proud history of standing up against apartheid. Women like Mary Manning stood up against the South African apartheid. That is our history. We must be true to who we are. We must stand up to the apartheid Israeli regime and do everything. We must never stop, never look away, and never rest and say this is enough until there is a ceasefire and until the people of Palestine can begin to rebuild their lives.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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I welcome Her Excellency, Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid to the Public Gallery for this debate. My colleagues and I missed the start of the debate because we were meeting the ambassador, so we are just catching up with what the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have said.

We know that a bomb is dropped on Gaza every four minutes, on average. Since this debate began, approximately 15 bombs have fallen. Another 35 will fall before the end of the debate, making 50 bombs in total. More destruction, more war crimes and more death. We welcome these statements but seldom, if ever, has there been a topic on which this Parliament and indeed the people of this country have felt so impotent. The Irish people are enraged, saddened and left bereft by the suffering being inflicted on the people of Gaza. The traditional responses of the Irish people to such suffering, such as aid donations, fundraisers and the opening of their homes to victims are being denied, as no aid can get in and no victims of this genocide can escape. It is butchery, pure and simple, with the world watching on and with many so-called developed states having blood on their hands and allowing the slaughter to happen.

Despite the paltry number of trucks that have apparently crossed the border, there are no reports that this aid has even been delivered. In fact, we have some reports that even in those very few trucks that have gone over there is no aid, but in fact there may be coffins. That is what Israel is allowing to cross the border. The blockade which has been in place since March is essentially still in place. Médecins Sans Frontières has described the amount of aid that Israel has started to allow into Gaza as "a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over". Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF, the United Nations, UNRWA, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the list of trusted humanitarian organisations goes on, are all saying the same thing.

What do we hear from the Israeli side? Finance minister Smotrich has called for Gaza to be totally destroyed. He said that sovereignty would be applied to the West Bank between now and the end of the lifetime of this Israeli Government in 2026. He has called for the conquering and cleansing of Gaza. This is genocide. It is war crimes. There are no other words to describe it. The Israelis are clear in their intent and they are following through. Their attacks on journalists, with 219 Palestinian journalists having been killed since 7 October, show that not only are they killing men, women and children, they want to ensure that the full truth cannot get out.

With the European Union resolving to review relations with Israel, perhaps the international tide is turning on Israel but it feels like a day late and a dollar short. We in the Labour Party want to ensure that, in our role in the Irish Parliament to hold our Government to account, we are being constructive in offering some solutions, albeit within the constraints that we have.

The Security Council of the UN is broken. I know the Tánaiste believes that. We also believe it. We will have a different debate on that in the not-too-distant future. The power of the veto has crippled it and led to inertia. It has failed in its primary responsibility to maintain peace and security in Gaza. A total of 55,000 people are dead, including 15,000 children. Yesterday, a child, only one week old, was killed in an air strike. What an awful week for the life of that poor baby, born into starvation, living under bombardment every day until finally, on the seventh day, their brand new life was ended by one Israeli bomb. The Security Council is failing. We believe in the UN General Assembly and we still believe in the power of the United Nations. Here is where we believe the Irish State can act. We think the Government should look at the precedent that was set in the uniting for peace resolution. That could provide a precedent and mechanism for the UN to act to ensure we can provide a humanitarian corridor and peacekeeping force to ensure that enough aid can get into Gaza, which would be hundreds and hundreds of trucks per day.

The suffering is so high, the relentlessness of the Israeli bombardment is so extreme and our levers are so few, which is why we are asking the Government to consider what the Labour Party will be proposing next week in our motion. We are looking for cross-party support for this. Our President, Michael D. Higgins, arguably our greatest-ever President, has called on the UN General Assembly to act. Some people may take issue with our President straying into policy areas; I do not. What people cannot deny is that Michael D., more so than any public representative, has his finger on the pulse of Irish public opinion. I ask that we listen to our President.

While all of this carnage is taking place, Israel continues to enjoy the fruits of European cultural and sporting competitions. This needs to stop. We need to engage with international sporting bodies and, in the case of Eurovision, for example, RTÉ, to push for Israel to be excluded from international sporting competitions, at both international and club level, and from events such as Eurovision. This may sound somewhat frivolous in the face of such slaughter, but with such limited levers, we need to pull every one we can. Israel at all levels cannot feel welcome in the modern world when its Government is acting with such impunity in the name of its people. It is acting like a state that is above international law and no state should be. It needs to be treated like a pariah until such time that peace is in place and the rebuilding of Gaza can begin.

I and the Labour Party have published the occupying power securities and handling settlement goods Bill, which we hope to get signed off this week. This will outlaw the selling of Israeli bombs but it will also protect workers who do not want to handle goods from the occupied territories. This is something we will look for the Government's support on. We believe we need to break down the barrier between Opposition and Government to ensure that we as an Irish Parliament do everything we can for the people of Gaza and the Palestinians. In speaking with a senior activist from civil society last week, his message was that the stance Ireland has taken is welcome, but we should not clap ourselves on the back too much, because it is still not enough.

I firmly believe this not as a stick with which to beat the Government but as a message for us on this issue to break down those divides and to work together to be leaders, not just in Europe but globally, to stop the slaughter, protect the innocent and save lives. We are best when we are brave and we are pushing boundaries. I have said to the Tánaiste that I do not think what we have done is unimportant. The recognition of the State of Palestine, the advisory opinion of the ICJ and the work in the EU are important. We recognise that but we have to push. Many of us in this Chamber have young children. The Tánaiste and I both have children of a very similar age. In years to come they will ask us what we did. Right now, we will not say we did nothing but we have to say we can do more. I genuinely believe that. The Labour Party believes that. We can do more. We are going to put forward a suite of actions we hope the Government will be able to support in the next few weeks and months.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Night after night on our news channels we see the devastation as bombs rain down on the innocent civilians in Gaza. Aid has only begun to trickle into Gaza after 11 weeks without anything, and we are told today that this is only six aid trucks. It is only a drop in the ocean of what is required and what this state was used to before the bombardment started. As a country that recently commemorated our own Gorta Mór, in the psyche of the Irish people famine now waits for Palestine. It has become a weapon for Israel. It is, as our President has said, forced starvation. We have children who are starving, malnourished, too weak to cry. It is like something from an historical Dickens novel. However, this is no novel; it is genocide by the Israeli state. The Labour Party has continued to call on Government to enact the occupied territories Bill in full and I welcome the update on that this afternoon. We will, as my colleague Deputy Smith says, bring a motion to debate on the floor of this House next week and it is already encouraging to see the support the House is giving that particular motion.

I acknowledge the Palestinian ambassador in the Public Gallery, whom we met today. She described the situation in Gaza as being beyond anybody's imagination. It seems Israel is being treated by some in the international community as a state beyond international law while Israel does everything in its power to end the State of Palestine. As my colleague has asked, the question is what the UN is doing in all of this. Last weekend I listened to a British surgeon who is working in Gaza. He said, "I mean, it's difficult to describe in words what's happening here ... [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead. ... If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse." What we need is a ceasefire now.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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This starts and ends with Benjamin Netanyahu. For many years, Netanyahu and his regime propped up Hamas at the expense of Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and nobody has done more to undermine the State of Israel than Benjamin Netanyahu. Finally, we are seeing a shift - belatedly - in the position of the international community, with the exception of Ireland. Judgment is coming and not just for the perpetrators but for the enablers of this too. I am ashamed of the response of the West, with a few notable exceptions, on this. Germany, led at the time by a supposed centre left Chancellor, was responsible for 30% of the arms that were imported into Israel between 2019 and 2023. The British Prime Minister, a Labour prime minister, turned around and said it was acceptable in 2023 to suspend food, water and electricity to Gaza. I am ashamed of that as a Labour TD and I am ashamed as well to be European because of the response of the European Commission and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

I acknowledge the work which the Tánaiste and the Government have done but we in Labour implore them to do more. This is the largest orphan crisis in history. More than 15,000 children have been murdered.

Finally, the use of propaganda by the Israeli regime no longer washes. This is the greatest crime of our time and we are seeing it on Instagram, on TikTok and on our television screens. However, this was foretold from the start. Israel said it would do this. This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is an illegal occupation and a resulting genocide. Israel deserves to be a global pariah, and not today or yesterday. The fact of the matter is that to protect Israel's colonial enterprise in Palestine the world became complicit in the forced displacement of Palestinian refugees. Wherever Israel decided to forcibly displace Palestinians, the international community by and large funded, facilitated, armed and welcomed it.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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If the headline stated that 14,000 Irish, British or American babies would starve to death without aid in the next 48 hours, would we stay completely silent? If the answer is "No", ask yourself why and speak up now. We are witnessing a genocide being livestreamed on our handheld devices. Every day, people across the world are seeing images and videos of innocent civilians and children being slaughtered. There is no grey area. No one can deny the pure and simple fact: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. Israel has committed multiple war crimes. Israel has a terrorist government led by a war criminal.

I welcome and support the actions taken thus far by the Irish Government to call out this murderous Israeli campaign for what it is. I welcome the lobbying the Government has done in the European Union on behalf of the Palestinian cause. I welcome the fact that the Government has continued these efforts in the face of the EU's refusal to recognise what is happening right before our eyes. This week, 17 member states called for a review of the co-operation deal with the State of Israel. This is, of course, welcome but I cannot help but feel embarrassed at how long it has taken to get to this point. How many innocent children have been murdered to get to this point? It feels like some sort of a sick joke to reconsider the EU co-operation deal with Israel.

The Government must act. We must enact the occupied territories Bill, for the love of God. The Government supported every Stage of the passage of this Bill. It should enact it. The Irish people want it. Dáil Éireann wants it. The world needs to see it. The people of Palestine need it desperately. The Taoiseach often says in this Chamber that we are an outlier in Europe and the rest of the world with the actions we have taken. The fact that this Chamber may be the only assembly in the world that is saying Ireland is not doing enough should be taken on board. The country that the world views as having the most solidarity with the Palestinian cause is calling on the Government loud and clear to do more. As a father himself, I do not doubt the Tánaiste's personal bona fides on this. It is positive to hear that he will bring an updated memo to Cabinet next week on the occupied territories Bill. However, I am fearful of this Government's response, not the Tánaiste's personal one. I remain hopeful. Dáil Éireann wants it. The people of Ireland want it. We have been on the side of peace and justice on this issue for a long time. We can do more. I am begging the Tánaiste to do more.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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With others in this House, and I am quite certain people right across the entire country, we share the horror of what we have been seeing going on in Gaza and across the Middle East. The denial of humanitarian aid to citizens is, as the Taoiseach rightly said, a war crime. The fact that we are now hearing evidence, as Deputy Duncan Smith has said, from a number of trusted humanitarian organisations which this country has always stood by shows the sheer depravity of what is going on within Gaza. As Deputy Sheehan has said, this can all be traced back to Benjamin Netanyahu. Even within Israel, there are now many voices speaking out against what is happening. Yair Golan, an opposition leader and a former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army, stated this week, “A sane country does not fight civilians, does not kill children as a hobby, and does not aim to expel populations." It is very clear that the Netanyahu government is engaged in a bloodthirsty action that will continue to have serious consequences for many years to come and we need to do everything we can to stop it.

There will be long-term scars, obviously for the families of the innocents who have been killed but equally for those who have been taken hostage by Hamas and have now spent 587 days in captivity. There are short-term challenges but our obligation, when we talk in this House about what more can we do, is to illustrate what that can be.

Yes, the immediate ceasefire has to be our top priority and every pressure needs to be brought to bear. I commend the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on their work. The strong stance that has been taken by countries like Ireland, Spain and, indeed, Slovenia is finally being listened to by some of our European colleagues. For instance, the fact it was the Netherlands that brought forward the proposal to review arrangements with Israel at EU level shows that we are finally being listened to at a European level but the decision was only reached on the basis of a qualified majority vote. There are still nine member states that are not happy to enter into this, so there must still be a process of persuasion at a European level.

A critical point is that we, as a country, have always supported the principles of multilateralism and of engaging at EU and UN levels, and the evidence has shown consistently that this is what works. Ireland going it alone does not work. The way that we, along with Spain and Norway recognised, and rightly so, Palestine as a state, was the right thing to do. It stands to this House and to the late Brian Lenihan senior who, as early as the 1970s and in the 1980s, as the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, called for the recognition of the Palestinian state.

In our search for peace we need to move to where we go after this and to how we can guarantee the horrors we see now - and we have to stop them - can never happen again. How can we build some sort of trust among those parties within the Middle East? I believe that can only be done with the removal of the Netanyahu government but that is a matter for the Israeli people. I believe if an election were to happen, that would be what would happen. I also believe that can be done with the removal of Hamas, because they do not serve the Palestinian people either. It is in the interests of the ordinary Palestinian people that we must continue to speak out.

It is critical that when peace comes about, and there will be a requirement for a multilateral force to engage in peace maintenance, or peacekeeping, that Ireland will contribute towards that peacekeeping initiative. We, in this country, have a very proud peacekeeping tradition, as everyone knows. However, I would say that if at the UN Security Council there is an attempt by the United States to veto any form of peacekeeping, if a multilateral peacekeeping mission is sought, then we should support it. We should work with those other members states with which we have so proudly stood in calling out these horrors and we should take an active part.

I believe we should listen to the peacemakers within the region. I am glad Ireland has engaged with the peace initiative of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the former Palestinian foreign minister, Nassir al-Kidwa, where they have come up with a potential long-term solution which includes the recognition of the Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders with certain land swaps, and immediate Israeli withdrawal, the move to elections in the West Bank and Gaza within 24 to 36 months and the establishment of an Arab peacekeeping force with engagement with Israel to ensure Israel's security. It is not just good enough to seek a ceasefire; we have to seek a long-term possibility for peace within this region. That will require us to ensure the people of Palestine and the people of Israel can live side by side well into the future.

It will be very important that we recognise the dangerous role of Iran in the region and that it is called out for its continuing support for Hamas and Hezbollah and as a global centre for cyberattacks. I do not believe we can simply divorce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from what is happening in the broader region. We need to ensure we try to seek peace between all countries and all peoples within that region.

It is very important that we start to work with other countries towards a plan for the rebuilding of Gaza. Everyone knows the appalling state it has now been left in as a result of Israeli actions but it will be important that nation is rebuilt. Palestine will rebuild. It must be led by the Palestinian people but Ireland, working with our European and other partners, needs to set out a plan on how we can invest in providing support for the infrastructure, for the rebuilding of hospitals and schools, and for putting in a democratic structure that is in the best interests of the Palestinian people. Our immediate focus must continue to be on the ceasefire and on securing peace but I believe that in the long run Ireland can play an important role, learning from the experiences of our own peace process, in building confidence between the peoples of Palestine and Israel.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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This is a very important debate and one that is very close to my heart. I have spent quite a lot of time in the occupied territories in Gaza and in the West Bank. I have eaten iftar with friends in Hanunas. I have sat down with people in Rafah, Gaza City and other cities such as Nablus and Ramallah in the West Bank. This is a centuries old conflict. It is not something we will resolve quickly or anything like that. I am generally proud of what Ireland has done in terms of taking principled stance on this issue. I see Ireland as the first western country to have called out the behaviours of Israel as being illegal and contrary to all of the norms of humanitarian and international law.

I made a speech a number of years ago, when I was a Senator, in which I reiterated the fact that one can be opposed to Israeli actions without being an anti-Semite. The two are not mutually inclusive. Many of the commentators I see and hear on the Israeli side of the house would try to conflate the two as if somehow to oppose the illegal and genocidal actions of the Israel Defense Forces is to be opposed to the Jewish people, to be anti-Semitic or to in any way question their right to exist or to be where they are. Those two things are absolutely side by side and I have friends who live throughout Israel who are disgusted, appalled and ashamed by what is being done in their name by the current Israeli government.

That is why this is not easy. There are always two sides to a story and this one seems particularly imbalanced. I acknowledge those Israelis who see the damage and the appalling nature of what is happening - the breaches of humanitarian law and of basic humanity going on there. I applaud them and encourage them to stand up wherever they can against what their government is doing.

I also know many Jewish people in Ireland - Israeli citizens included - who are appalled by what is happening there. This is not a black and white issue and it is not the bad guys and the good guys. We know what Hamas did on 7 October 2023 was in itself an appalling act of barbarism. Hamas sacrificed the civilian population of Gaza on the altar of its own political ambition and nothing more can be said about that. Every one of those hostages should be returned. There is no justification for keeping the hostages, for allowing them to die or, in the event of them being returned or their bodies being returned, to be paraded as war trophies the way they have been. It is disgusting and absolutely reprehensible and unjustifiable.

By a strange twist, while all of that is true, what Israel has done in response is also absolutely unjustifiable. It is outside the norms of any conflict I can think of. When we look back on this in years to come and when our children and our children's children look back on this, the questions we will have to be accountable for is: what did we do to try to stop it? Did we speak up? Did we use our influence internationally to say this cannot continue? I believe that, in Ireland, we have.

I support the occupied territories Bill but let us be honest, it will not stop a single bullet from being fired. It will not save a single Palestinian child from starving to death the way they are at the moment. It does not mean we should not do it. We should but let us look at what we can actually do. One of the things I was really heartened to learn this week was the fact that now other European countries are coming around to our perspective on this. I recognise that some European countries have a very difficult history with the State of Israel and with the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Second World War. None of that justifies acquiescing with the genocide that is currently happening. Anybody watching their televisions in Ireland yesterday and this morning will have seen reports from UNICEF, which is an independent broker and has no skin in the game other than to represent what is happening, telling us about the atrocities that are happening to children.

It is a disturbing set of events. I have a child who will turn two next month. I cannot countenance the notion that she would be in that position, or that any of us, our children, friends, families or parents would be starved to death, not for any good or justifiable reason or legitimate end but because there appears to be a blood lust on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu and his Government to wipe out Gaza.

Let us call it what it is. Let us do what we can and also recognise what we cannot do. One of the things we can do is broker that agreement with our fellow European states. As I said at the start, I am proud of the stance this Government has taken in building a coalition with such countries as Malta, Belgium, Spain and Norway and recognising the Palestinian state. These are all important things, but again, though they are important principles, as the occupied territories Bill will be, they have not stopped a single rocket being fired or saved any lives. What we need to do now is build on that and speak to our European colleagues in all the other countries, especially those which are being acquiescent or intransigent on this issue, and make sure they understand exactly what is happening. I am not in Germany, Austria or Poland. I do not know what their national media are covering in respect of these issues, but what I see on our televisions and on the Internet from trusted news sources is appalling. It is absolutely unforgivable and will be stain on the people of the world for generations to come.

Let us take those steps forward, towards building alliances within Europe and showing we actually respect the rule of law. If we do not, what is it all for? I consider myself to be a proud European. In about half an hour, I will chair the first meeting of the Joint Committee on European Affairs in this House and I am looking forward to that immensely. I am immensely proud of what we have done within Europe, but I am also deeply ashamed of what Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola did. They are members of my party at a European level. I also recognise that they apologised for it, but it was unforgivable in many respects. To stand next to Israeli ministers and stand by them at the same time as they were openly saying they would commit war crimes is indefensible.

Let us move on from that and see what we can do about brokering alliances with other member states of the European Union, other nations which, like us, include people who respect the rule of international law. Let us recognise that we cannot allow to continue in Gaza what has been happening, that the collective punishment of civilians, including children, in Gaza is absolutely unsupportable and that the blockading of aid, those most basic things we all need in our lives, such as food, water and shelter, by a state that claims to be part, a normal member, of the international community cannot be allowed to continue. The thing about it is, however, that it will continue until the international community stands up and says it cannot. The difficulty we have is that there are major players within the international community, like the United States and some countries in the European Union, that will not take that stance. We can understand what their difficult history is, but none of it justifies what is happening, none of it justifies standing by, none of it means it is okay not to challenge Israel on the way it is behaving. None of it means Israel is not committing genocide or breaking international law.

All those things are happening and we are a member of the international community. Ireland is a country that has built its international reputation on respect for the rule of law and human rights and aid that is true to help people. Ireland needs to stand on its own two feet. I acknowledge what the Tánaiste has done in Europe, even this week. We need to build on that. We need to stop it because we will be judged on this by our children and grandchildren.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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This is not a time for equivocation. It is not a time for saying "on the one hand and on the other hand". We have had 19 months of genocide, land grab, breaches of human rights and breaches of other international laws in Gaza. We have had two months of a blockade of basic human life-sustaining and life-giving aid for children. Last night, we were warned that unless this aid reaches people, 14,000 babies are likely to die within 48 hours. It is collective punishment of defenceless children on a grand scale. If this does not stop you in your tracks, I do not know what will.

Israel is acting with impunity as the world watches and what did Europe do? We sent candidates and singers to a manipulated rigged vote, a propaganda piece masquerading as a song contest, while the backdrop was scenes of innocent men, women and children being slaughtered on our screens.

I will quote Parnell, who said:

When a man takes [land] from which another man was evicted, you must shun him... by isolating him... as if he were the leper of old, you must show your detestation of the crime he has committed.

Is there no line Israel will not cross? Is there no land grab, murder, killing of children, medics, aid workers or journalists that will make the people of Europe shout stop? While there has been in the last few days international scrutiny of Israel's unrestrained war crimes, it is all words and what matters is action, but the world is resoundingly silent.

Our Government should be doing more. Since last August, there have been reports of Israeli war planes flying through Irish airspace with bombs, munitions and weaponry going to commit those crimes in Gaza, passing through our sovereign territory. What is the Government saying or doing? The Department of Transport has apparently been investigating Ireland's de facto open door policy to genocide. A draft report was produced in March, but the Irish people, most of whom would be horrified at the prospect of complicity in genocide, remain in the dark. Why is the Government remaining silent about this? If these planes are not in our skies, let us know, publish the report. It is another long line in the Government's failure to stand up against Israel's genocide. It should be standing more in solidarity with the people of Gaza. We saw it in the run-up to the election when the three-card trick produced by the Government was used to confuse the people about the occupied territories Bill. The Irish Central Bank continues to invest in Israeli war bonds. Our complicity must stop.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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When the Dunnes Stores workers made their stand in the 1980s in Ireland, the Government eventually followed suit. It led the way in confronting the South African apartheid regime internationally with sanctions and eventually that regime and apartheid in South Africa came to an end.

The Palestinian people recently commemorated the Nakba, the catastrophe, the ethnic cleansing of them from their lands. They have endured oppression, tyranny, genocide and now the mass starvation of their people and the world stands by, but I want to talk about us. We cannot even pass the occupied territories Bill, for God's sake. This is not sanctions against a regime or state. This is about the lands stolen by settlers. We are talking about sanctions against settlers who are committing war crimes as defined by international law. We are allowing commerce and trade to be done. We cannot even pass that Bill.

What has happened to us? There was a time when we led the way, inspired by ordinary workers in Dunnes Stores, in moral outrage and the world followed. We have utterly failed to honour our tradition when it comes to the Palestinian people - utterly failed. We cannot even pass the occupied territories Bill. Our Central Bank is dealing with Israeli war bonds. This is a shameful period. The Government should not console itself that it finally recognised the State of Palestine 12 years after a motion was passed by both Houses. It should not console itself that it finally supported the case in the International Court of Justice. It has held back the occupied territories Bill for years and is facilitating war bonds being sold. We are shaming our legacy in respect of a people that needs us so much more than anyone has.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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Caithfimid a admháil nach bhfuil Éire tar éis a dóthain a dhéanamh chun an cinedhíothú a stopadh. Sa chéad óráid a thug mé os comhair na Dála, bhíomar ag glaoch ar an Rialtas an occupied territories Bill a chur i bhfeidhm. Ceithre mhí níos déanaí, níl sé déanta aige. Tá sé soiléir le fada céard ar cóir dúinn déanamh. This Government has time and again defended inaction by stating that Ireland has done more than other nations to support the Palestinian people, but the bar is not merely on the floor, it is hidden under the rubble of Gaza. In my comments today, I will speak specifically about the role of the media and the nature of reporting throughout this genocide and about the normalisation of many breaches of international law and order.

When it comes to reporting and the media, it is important to recognise the incredible work done by many Irish journalists. I would single out the coverage of RTÉ's "Drive Time" in particular. However, there are many ways in which reporting and journalism have been hugely problematic over the past 18 months. I have heard directly, as I am sure many in this Chamber have, from Palestinians and their allies how terrifying it is to be silenced in the face of genocide. Gaza is the deadliest place on the planet in which to be a journalist. Some 73% of journalists killed globally last year were in Palestine. While Israeli Government representatives are free to go on news panels, to give official lines and blatant lies that are accepted as true, editors all across the Western nations make sure to remind us that reported figures of dead children are from a Hamas-run health ministry. The words of Israel are never qualified by the fact that its Prime Minister is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. We are told massacres cannot be independently verified, as I heard on the RTÉ News just this morning, with no acknowledgement that it is impossible to independently verify such statistics in Gaza because of the blockade. Always we are given an invitation to mistrust Palestinians reporting on the crimes committed against them but to accept whatever Israel says.

I condemn Hamas, but even now my words on the genocide are discounted by many and set aside if I do not take the time to repeat that condemnation of Hamas and its attack, time and again. We are not allowed to say what is before our eyes without indulging cynical both-sides narratives, something that the UN rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, called out live on RTÉ a number of weeks ago. All this, while blatant evidence of the murder of paramedics and the subsequent cover-up is countered by copied lines from the Israel Defense Forces press releases in the name of balance. We are not allowed to focus on the genocide without paying some respect to the official Israeli line no matter how high the lies pile up.

This propaganda and the actions of this Israeli Government have led to a normalisation of horrendous war crimes considered up until now beyond reproach. In the past few months, we have seen what was unthinkable become normal. At the beginning of the genocide, people were incredulous that Israel would bomb a hospital, a university, a school. More than a year and a half later, air strikes on hospitals, which are still heinous war crimes, have been completely normalised. They have been normalised by the impunity that Israel enjoys. Our lack of action as a nation, as an EU bloc, has legitimised that because anyone who believes in justice, in international law, who believes that these things are crimes against humanity, surely would have done something, anything, everything to stop it.

Crimes against humanity are called that because these crimes are an attack on every living person on this earth. If we accept them anywhere, we say that human life and dignity is optional. It has desensitised us to similar crimes the world over. Hospitals and civilian areas are bombed and attacked in Ukraine, Sudan and Congo. Our failure to protect the lives of the people of Gaza is a failure to protect all humanity.

Last week, I attended a briefing with healthcare workers for Palestine. One Government representative showed up to that. I really wish more of them had been there because what I saw and what was shared in that briefing room will stay with me for the rest of my life. Even now, our failure to act in a concrete way, to lead as a nation with such a clear solidarity between our people and the people of Palestine, fails us all because in our thousands and in our millions we are all Palestinians.

I would like to set out clearly what our asks are, as the Social Democrats. At domestic level, enact the occupied territories Bill, including as it relates to goods and services; stop the sale of Israeli bonds from our Central Bank; end illegal weapons flights over Irish airspace and inspect planes; remove the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA, definition of antisemitism; examine the sale of dual-use goods; and use our diplomatic influence at EU level to seek EU-level recognition of the State of Palestine.

The review of the association agreement is welcome but it is revoking a privilege. We need sanctions, the same as have been imposed on Russia. We need to see true leadership from our EU leaders and from this Government.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Only now, after 19 months of siege and slaughter, after the images of starving Palestinian children with swollen bellies and hollow eyes, after the mass graves and the bombed-out hospitals, after the annihilation of entire families, only now do we hear the Government saying that next week, it will bring a memo in respect of the occupied territories Bill. Only now, when the scale of destruction has pierced even the most hardened conscience, when the term "plausible genocide" echoes in the halls of the UN, do we hear Europe agreeing to question or even just review its trade deals with the very state responsible. Let us not dress this up as courage. That is not leadership. This is a catch-up with our own conscience.

A Bill was written in 2018 with Senator Frances Black. Its purpose was clear, to stop Ireland trading in goods produced in stolen Palestinian land and to recognise that the settlements built through dispossession are not just illegal but are part of a system of apartheid and oppression. Fianna Fáil brought that Bill to Second Stage in Dáil Éireann in 2018. That was the punishment Fianna Fáil felt Israel deserved at that point. This is what is coming next week, the exact same thing, while we are on the precipice of a genocide.

Successive Governments have blocked the occupied territories Bill. They have delayed it and buried it under excuses and we were told it was complicated, that Ireland might get sued and that we needed to wait. Wait for what? Wait for the apartheid, the ethnic cleansing, the ongoing genocide that has been inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the State of Israel?

That moment should always raise a question that goes far beyond Ireland. What exactly does it take to say that when a state can announce its intent to annihilate another people, it can effectively do so without sanction? What does it say when a lack of food is used as a weapon, when journalists are targeted, when aid convoys are bombed and the international community keeps trading as if nothing is happening? Why should any nation on earth not feel emboldened to do the same when clearly there is one state on earth that has felt no consequences for its actions?

The EU found its backbone when Putin invaded Ukraine. Sanctions came swiftly, trade was cut and assets were frozen. There was no debate about sensitivity. There was no moral clarity. However, when Israel commits atrocities in broad daylight, we hesitate. We use the language of diplomacy to cover the language of war. We talk about complexity while children starve. We should have led on this. Our history could have enabled us to do so. We had the legitimacy of our own past to stand forward and lead, but we did not. We equivocated.

I hope this small step we take will be the first sign of consequence. Let this not be the end of it. Let this be the moment when Ireland says we will not trade in the spoils of colonisation, stay neutral in the face of ethnic cleansing or look away while people are systematically erased. If our history means anything to us, it means we need to learn the lessons of our own history and apply them faster when others are enduring the same.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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The horror going on in Gaza right now is beyond words. The UN reports that 14,000 babies could lose their lives in the next 48 hours unless aid is allowed in. It also states that almost 1 million children are at risk of famine. More than 16,000 children have been bombed and murdered by Israel in Gaza. These numbers, every single one of them, represent a child with parents. How can we as a common humanity allow this to continue? Our collective humanity, even the notion of a common humanity, is being bombed into the rubble by Israel and the complicity of countries around the world. What is happening in Gaza is that an entire population is being ethnically cleansed and children are starving and being bombed. It is an open-air extermination camp, with all the significance of what that concept is. The Irish Government is not doing enough. It could be doing more. We could enact the occupied territories Bill immediately, including services. We could stop the Central Bank from authorising Israeli bonds. We could stop the transport of military weapons of war over our airspace. We could be taking a lead at the UN General Assembly and leading an action that should be taken there.

Do not say the Irish Government is doing all it could. It could be doing more and it must. We plead with the Goverment to do more. Because even if it is just one country, at least we will have stood up when the world has been silent and complicit with what is going on.

I spoke at length to a journalist named Abubaker for a podcast. He is a young journalist aged 22 years. I would really encourage people to listen to it. He is only out of Gaza a month. He described how he had sat down with his family about two or three months ago. They had no food left and they had to eat pet food. He described how that was the moment when he and his family were completely dehumanised and humiliated. He has come to Ireland and he took part in the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign march this weekend. He said there that he felt human again. He has been broken like so many people in Gaza. We have a responsibility to act. I commend all the protests being organised by people across this country and the world. We have to continue. We are not powerless. We have to stop this.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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In his magisterial meditation on the Holocaust, The Drowned and the Saved, Italian survivor Primo Levi detailed in a chapter “Useless Violence” some of the cruelties and deprivations to which the Nazis subjected the Jewish community of Europe prior to their murder in concentration camps. The term “useless violence” reflected the lack of any rationale, even in the twisted logic of war, for this treatment. The point was to inflict suffering for its own sake. Levi gave the example of there being no facility for toileting on box cars that were packed with people destined for concentration camps. The severely ill, the elderly, the pregnant and children were forced to urinate and defecate in view of others on torturous journeys lasting days. Levi described this deprivation as "a trauma to which our civilization does not prepare us, a profound wound inflicted on human dignity, an obscene and ominous attack; but also the sign of a deliberate and gratuitous malignancy."

The genocide that is being perpetrated by Israel today in Gaza has been distinguished by repeated and varied patterns of useless violence, symbolised for all of us by the thousands of aid trucks lined up at border crossings indefinitely as the population starves, and as what is left of society in Gaza moves closer to a state of anarchy while people get increasingly desperate and driven to the limits of despair. There are so many examples of this: the withholding of pain medication or anaesthetics from people who are in agony due to burns or wounds or from women giving birth and undergoing caesarean sections; people with amputated limbs being denied crutches and wheelchairs; the targeted bombing of sanitation and sewage facilities to inflict maximum misery on survivors; and the countless videos posted by Israeli military personnel mocking victims of their crimes. The word "evil" should be sparingly used but if this is not evil, what is?

The scale of killing in the Nazi Holocaust was of a much higher magnitude than that of the Gaza genocide, but the contours of suffering and wanton cruelty and the clear intent to dehumanise and destroy a civilian population are increasingly similar, as all genocides share such patterns of inhumanity and destruction. The IHRA definition of antisemitism, which made its way into the programme for Government, forbids drawing such parallels and in so doing prohibits us from fully learning from history. The use of the IHRA definition to conflate criticism of Zionism with antisemitism will potentially harm our ability to fully oppose the horrific crimes being committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is not clear how this emerged in the programme for Government despite all the concerns that have been raised about it internationally. Will the Minister tell us how this came about and commit to overturning this programme for Government commitment?

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2009, I was in Gaza after Israel went in, following the changeover of the US President. It went in on 27 December 2008 and kept bombing until 18 January 2009. On 20 January, the new US President was sworn in. I was there in February 2009 and saw the devastation of less than 28 days of bombing, where 1,400 people were killed, of whom 400 were children. I was reporting to a subcommittee of the European Parliament on the atrocity that had occurred. Now, that has been multiplied by 100, with over 45,000 people dead, although the figure is probably far higher than that.

Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the acts of genocide as including “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Article III states that complicity in genocide is also a punishable crime. As we speak, genocide is being committed in Gaza. On Monday of this week, the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said, "We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed ... We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction with no precedent globally”. In February, Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament, referred to Palestinians as "scum" and "subhuman". He called for the killing of all adult men in Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaks of total victory, which echoes the Nazi Second World War slogan of the final victory. Israel is now doing to the Gaza ghetto what the Nazis did in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War. If anyone doubts what kind of person Benjamin Netanyahu is, Alon Pinkas, former senior Israeli Government adviser, described him last September as a “vile messiah leading a cult of lies and death”. Another former head of the Israel Defense Forces and former Israeli minister for defence referred to Israel becoming a “messianic dictatorship that is racist, fascist, homophobic, misogynist”. There is no doubt the Prime Minister and his criminal crew have embraced what Sigmund Freud called the death drive. They are now motivated by the manic forces of death and destruction. Their final solution for the Gaza ghetto is the total destruction of the ghetto and the killing and ethnic cleansing of its people. Speaking this week, Yair Golan, a former senior Israeli general and now leader of the Democrats political party, said:

This government is full of people who have no connection whatsoever to Judaism. Vengeful types who are bereft of any intelligence, morality or ability to run a country in a time of emergency. Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state ... [like] the South Africa of yore, unless it reverts to acting like a sane country.

All the while, settler terror gangs are marauding across the West Bank, fully supported by Israeli security forces. Israel also embarked on a major bombing campaign in Lebanon and Syria and used the opportunity during the collapse of the Assad regime to grab more Syrian territory in the Mount Hebron region. Extremist politicians in Israel are advocating for a greater Israel stretching from the Nile to Euphrates. While the genocide unfolds in Gaza, the world stands idly by and issues calls for restraint. The time for talk has passed. The need for action is urgent. The time for action is now.

What is happening in Gaza has been described as a medieval starvation siege. Israel must be forced to stop. Europe is Israel’s most important trading partner. It has a privileged association agreement with the EU. Israel is in gross violation of international law and therefore in breach of article 2 of the association agreement. Reviewing the agreement is welcome but genocide is already under way. The association agreement should be immediately suspended. There should be no trade with Israel while the blockade continues. More forceful action must be taken against Israel. The time has also come for a complete boycott of Israel - military, economic, social and cultural. Any person or country giving support to Israel as it pursues a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing is complicit in these crimes. This is especially so for countries supplying military aid to Israel. The United States and Germany have the capacity to stop this genocide if they wish. To their shame, they refuse to do so. The bombs being dropped in Gaza are made in America.

The powerful Arab states in the Middle East appear to have abandoned their fellow Arabs and Muslims in Palestine. Shame on them.

The EU published its 2025 values document earlier this year. The section on human rights violations states that the EU will continue its work to end and prevent human rights violations globally, including those related to Russia's war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, particularly Gaza. The challenge for EU leaders is to live up to their stated values when confronted by the situation in Gaza. Gaza is a political emergency and a moral crisis. The world is watching. The time for talk is over. Decisive action is now required.

InThe Irish Times last Saturday, Berlin correspondent, Derek Scally, wrote a beautiful article about the life of a German Holocaust survivor who died at the age of 103. Her parents and brother were murdered in Auschwitz. She survived the war and emigrated to the US in 1946. She returned to Berlin in 2010 and spent much of the last years of her life informing and educating young Germans about the Holocaust. She kept repeating a powerful message:

There is no Christian, Jewish or Muslim blood, just human blood. People killed millions of people because they didn’t see their victims as people. It is your task to make sure, in future, that nothing ever happens like what we experienced. My message is simple: be human.

The future she talked about is now. The Palestinian people of Gaza are human too. We have a moral obligation to come to their assistance to stop the killing, starvation and genocide.

Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Like every Member, I am horrified at what is currently unfolding, and has been for months, before our eyes in Gaza. On Sunday, there was a little hope with the Israeli statement, which stated it would allow some aid to cross the border into Gaza. However, with this morning's news from the UN that no aid has reached any civilian in Gaza yet, I just could not sleep last night thinking of the little children, like my own little children, who are in danger of dying from hunger in 2025, in a world where there is an abundance of food, simply because of the brutality of the actions of Israel. As the Tánaiste said, what is happening in Israel goes against our humanity. It goes against the strongly held values of the people of Ireland. It goes against all of our desire for peace, stability and security.

As a mother and a human being, this is heartbreaking. This is wrong. I know the Government has consistently called for a cessation of violence, the release of hostages and the supply of aid, and is working towards a two-state solution, but we need to see more action. We need our friends in Europe and beyond to stand with us, to call out what is wrong and to demand that Israel stops what it is doing, and the horror it is inflicting on the people of Gaza, who are experiencing unimaginable suffering at the hands of Israel. They are innocent Palestinian men, women and children. I am heartened by yesterday's announcement that the EU will conduct a review of the EU association agreement with Israel after the majority of member states supported a proposal to do so at yesterday's meeting of EU foreign ministers. There is no doubt this is a significant and important decision that reflects the grave concerns shared by member states regarding the ongoing military operations by Israel and the blockade of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. It is important to see the EU agree on the need to send a strong signal to Israel to reverse course, to halt its military operations and to lift the blockade on life-saving aid.

Children are in grave danger of dying of hunger. I cannot believe I am using those words in real time in the Chamber, and that I am not speaking about some historical horror. This is happening now, in real time, in your world, my world and our world. As parliamentarians, we have a duty to act. I cannot stress this more strongly: we need an immediate cessation of hostilities. We need the release of all remaining hostages. We need to see a surge in vital humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.

I am here to represent the many constituents of Carlow-Kilkenny who have urged me time and time again, in countless numbers of phone calls, text messages and emails, to urge the Government to take action, to stay strong and to keep pushing for what we all know is right, which is a cessation of violence in Gaza, the return of hostages, the immediate supply of humanitarian aid to the citizens of Gaza and the enactment of the occupied territories Bill. I welcome the news that the Tánaiste is bringing a memo to the Cabinet on that Bill next week. Ireland and Spain called for the review of the Israeli association agreement in February 2024 but did not get the support they needed at that time. I commend the Government on continuing to be consistent in its calls for the cessation of violence, the release of hostages and the supply of vital humanitarian aid, and its desire for dialogue in reaching a two-state solution.

We now need the European Commission to act with speed on the position of a clear majority of members. We need to see a timeline for action. We need that to happen quickly. We do not have time. The innocent women and children of Gaza do not have time, as there is clearly an urgency to this, considering the worsening situation on the ground in Gaza. The situation on the ground has become immeasurably worse, with catastrophic consequences for the civilian population and a clear and present danger of famine. We continue to witness appalling scenes in Gaza but we can take action. We now have two avenues for progress that I would like to see progressed. These are to take action in Ireland to pass the occupied territories Bill and, as a result of the decision on Tuesday, we now have an ability at EU level for speedy action. We need to see action. I believe that we are stronger together and that action at EU level will be far more impactful than anything we can do on our own domestically.

We need to strengthen our action. I thank the Government and the Tánaiste for his being so consistent in his messaging, in his calls for a cessation of violence in Gaza, for the release of hostages, for the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the need to work together towards a two-state solution. Underpinning all of the above, we need to stay consistent and strong, we need to keep pushing and we need to keep calling out Israel. We need action now.

I cannot finish my statement without mentioning our serving personnel in Lebanon, which is obviously very close to Gaza. As a former peacekeeper who spent some time in Israel, I remain concerned about the fragile security situation in southern Lebanon and our serving men and women of the Defence Forces, including the ongoing Hezbollah planning and the continuing Israeli strikes and overflights into Lebanon and Beirut. I urge all sides to meet their commitments under the ceasefire agreement. I commend the Lebanese Government on its efforts to deploy the Lebanese armed forces in the south to achieve a monopoly of force throughout the country. Israel's suggestion that it will continue to occupy parts of Lebanon - let me be very clear on this - is a breach of international law. Communities on both sides of the blue line must be allowed to return to their homes in safety. We also need to see a massive surge of humanitarian aid and assistance into southern Lebanon. I encourage the steps that are being taken by Prime Minister Salam's government to reform Lebanon's economy and towards Lebanon's reconstruction. I would like to see Ireland and the EU remaining committed to supporting this work.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I extend my solidarity to the Palestinian people. Israel has imposed a blockade across the occupied Palestinian territories, using the most brutal military tactics, and murdered tens of thousands of people. This is particularly true in Gaza where, over the past 19 months, there has been a systematic campaign of murder, forced displacement, attacks on health centres, the arbitrary detention of thousands of people, which has been a near-daily occurrence, and many actions that clearly constitute a genocide. Since the attack on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and others, the response from Israel has been brutal, uncompromising and criminal. Thousands of people, particularly women and children, have been killed by Israel. These attacks have targeted hospitals, schools, universities and displacement camps, and seen the forced displacement of millions of people.

A number of politicians in Israel have been clear about their goal: the removal of Palestinian people from the land of Gaza. Israel, with the staunch backing of the United States, has been allowed to act with impunity. Israel faces no consequences and pays no penalty for the terror it has imposed on the people of Gaza. European leaders have been enablers of Israel as it has massacred men, women and children. Many of these scenes have been broadcast on our screens in the past 19 months, and Irish people are truly horrified at what they are watching.

The State of Israel seems immune to the criticism of the international community. Why would it not be? Condemnation without action can be and is being dismissed and ignored. The lack of sanctions allows Israel to continue to trade and gather resources for its campaign of genocide against the people of Gaza. No humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza in the past 80 days. We learned today that none of the tiny trickle of aid that has been allowed in recently has been distributed. Humanitarian trucks full of food and medicine are blocked and people are literally starving a few miles away. That is a genocide. Mr. Michael D. Higgins, Uachtarán na hÉireann, said on Saturday in Limerick at the Famine memorial day event that, during our Gorta Mór, food was leaving Limerick at the same time as people were starving, and that we are seeing similar scenes in Gaza. The UN and others have highlighted the widespread malnutrition in Gaza. Global hunger monitors have warned that 500,000 people face starvation and hunger. We in Sinn Féin urge the Government to use all diplomatic, legislative and political options to press for the end of military action and the achievement of a lasting ceasefire.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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What we are witnessing in Gaza is not just a failure of diplomacy but also a moral collapse of the international order. The bombardment, forced starvation and displacement of Palestinians are not abstract tragedies; they are livestreamed horrors etched into our collective conscience. Ireland, with its history of colonial oppression and enforced starvation, cannot look away as mams and dads – those few who are left alive after 19 months of bombardment – watch their babies die of hunger in their arms. We need action, not words or statements. We need concrete, tangible actions.

Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D. Higgins, in his address at the national Famine commemoration, correctly stated that the UN Security Council is blocking action and thereby facilitating the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. He has pointed a path forward: the UN General Assembly. It can demand and approve an urgent UN-mandated humanitarian and peace support operation. Ireland is uniquely placed to lead in this regard as a neutral voice and former colony that is respected and valued internationally in Europe and the global south. In Waterford, groups such as Gaeil ar son Gaza and Waterford for Palestine demand sanctions against Israel and organise rallies, which are growing ever larger. Waterford is twinned with Ramallah in the West Bank and many towns and cities are following suit. South East IPSC organises aid convoys and Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine sends vital supplies. Even children are acting here in Ireland. Scoil Náisiúnta na Rinne has, along with others, fundraised to send water tankers to Gaza, teaching us that empathy knows no age. Solidarity marches, rallies and vigils are growing in size and are happening in cities, towns and villages all across Ireland. That is patriotism. Solidarity is part of our DNA. Our history is the Gazans lived reality. We know right from wrong and we stand with Palestine. In this context, it is beyond infuriating that the Irish Government refuses to follow words with tangible, concrete actions.

Despite the review and the progress of recent days, the EU–Israel trade deal still stands. Israel enjoys preferential trade with the EU while committing genocide. The Government is still blind – wilfully, if we are being honest – to the use of our airspace to equip the genocide. The Irish Central Bank is used as a conduit for Israel’s so-called war bonds, financing the horrors unleashed on the captive civilian population of Gaza. If there is any shred of humanity, the Government should take tangible, strong actions, enact the occupied territories Bill, close our airspace to those transiting weapons and components, and lead the UN General Assembly.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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We must now ask ourselves whether the State, the Government and we as a people are complicit in genocide. I acknowledge the State’s support for the South African case in the international courts, the Taoiseach’s description of Israeli action in Gaza as a “war crime”, and the statements at the weekend by the Taoiseach and other Government leaders; however, we must do more. We must take action. What is happening in Gaza is the ultimate appalling vista. It is the deliberate destruction of the Palestinian people by bomb, bullet and starvation. This country, because of its Famine and its neutrality, has unique moral authority and, indeed, an obligation to lead the international community in stopping this genocide.

Shockingly, the Government is complicit in genocide. It is allowing the Irish Central Bank to sell Israeli Government war bonds. It is allowing planes carrying arms through Irish airspace, and military planes are going through Shannon. This must stop and we must immediately enact the occupied territories Bill.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As we all grapple with the images of deliberate starvation that we see in Gaza, each one of us thinks about what meaningful actions we can take in the face of such obvious war crimes. Ten months ago, the then Tánaiste, Taoiseach and I all received the same legal advice, namely that passing the occupied territories Bill was legally possible with some amendments, following the opinion of the International Court of Justice. The Government has since told us that it plans to introduce its own legislation, which will ban only goods produced in the occupied territories but not services. The Government has never told us why. It has said it received legal advice. What is it?

In the letter the Attorney General sent us last year, there was no mention of the need to make a distinction between goods and services. There was a 23-page letter going into great detail about the issues the Attorney General had with the Bill but there was not one reference to the need to make a distinction between goods and services. Let us remember the obligation the ICJ says member states have regarding the occupied territories: to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied territories. The International Court of Justice has made no distinction between goods and services. Ten months ago, the Attorney General made no distinction between goods and services. On what basis is that distinction being made now?

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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Some 14,000 babies in Gaza will die if aid trucks do not reach them in the next couple of days. Just think about that. We cannot help but question where the humanity is in this world today. Israel is carrying out a blatant, deliberate genocide for the world to see. What are we doing about it? How can we allow this to go on? We are seeing shocking images of dead and dying children every single day in Gaza. We are hearing reports about children who are so malnourished that the doctors cannot even tell what age they are. No child, no matter what and no matter who they are or where they are from, should be starved to death by a government. We have to intervene. If we continue to do nothing, we will continue to facilitate the atrocities. What Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Government are doing is a crime against humanity. We continue to do nothing about it. We must enact the occupied territories Bill, yet the Irish Government continues to delay it and water it down. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetime. We must do all we can to save 14,000 children within the next 48 hours, the 48 hours after that, and the 48 hours after that. Stop the genocide.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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The Israeli finance minister stated, “We are annihilating everything that remains in the Strip”, “we are conquering, clearing and staying”, and “the world still hasn’t stopped us”. That is the Israeli finance minister admitting in plain sight that Israel is carrying out a genocide. Food trucks are sitting by with baby food and baby formula, and 14,000 babies are set to face death in the next 48 hours, according to the UN. What does malnutrition actually look like? It is a shutting down of the body’s mechanisms. It is absolutely the most horrible way for people to die. The Taoiseach said “no business as usual” but it is business as usual.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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He said it was a war crime.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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The Tánaiste said global momentum is building, but what happened yesterday with the EU? Those concerned sat on their hands as this information was brought to their attention.

The EU and UK are feeling the pressure because half a million people took to the streets in London and there were huge marches all over the globe. The global movement of ordinary people is the only light that shows humanity still exists. The sanctions the EU has imposed on Russia include travel bans, the immobilisation of €210 billion in Russian central bank assets, and trade restrictions. What has the EU imposed on Israel? Absolutely zilch. One hundred and nine thousand people are considered to be dead, according to The Economist. The Government can pass the occupied territories Bill, stop Shannon being used, take away the definition of "antisemitism"-----

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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No, no.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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-----and stop the Central Bank of Ireland from processing bonds in Ireland.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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The level of death and destruction in Gaza demands us not just to talk but to act and to do everything possible. What is happening is genocide and war crimes. Gaza is not just a warzone; it is a horror zone. The State of Israel is a terrorist state. Its Government has stooped to a level of depravity never seen before. It is shameful, and that Government will never be forgiven lightly for what it is doing: 53,000 dead, thousands buried beneath the rubble, families missing, neighbourhoods missing, hundreds of thousands of people injured and maimed, and up to 2 million starving while truckloads of food stand at the border and are stopped from entering by terrorists from the IDF. They are called the IDF but I call them a bunch of terrorists.

The Palestinians have been hunted and hounded by Israel since 1947, a refugee population within their own country. What does it take for the so-called civilised world to act? I acknowledge that the Government has joined the South African case at the International Criminal Court. I accept that we have recognised the State of Palestine, that we are sending aid to Palestine and taking in injured children and that we want a cessation of all hostilities, but we must do a lot more. We have also been part of the call for the Israeli-EU trade agreement to end. This shows what a neutral state can do when we put our mind to it.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy Stanley.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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It is okay.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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We need to pass the occupied territories Bill, step up efforts at EU level and use our position as a neutral State on the international stage.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy Catherine Connolly.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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There are two of us left, so it is-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I know but, at the same time-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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That is okay. I just wish to be fair to the other speakers. I know it is difficult for the Chair.

I have attended many protests, as all my colleagues have done. There was a time when I was most uncomfortable with the chant "Israel is a terrorist state" because I am an absolute democrat. I have no such reluctance now and I am ashamed that I was not comfortable with that chant because Israel is a terrorist state. It is out of control, it is a rogue state and it has got that far because it has done everything with impunity from the big powers that be, including Europe, America and many other countries. We have just learned that a delegation from 22 EU countries overlooking a refugee camp in the West Bank has been shot at. We are told that the delegation "deviated" from the route. The only deviant here is Israel. It has deviated from international law.

The speeches the backbenchers made today were absolutely wonderful. I was near tears with the passion. I wish they had made those speeches earlier, when we were appealing to the Government to stop Israel from acting with impunity. Today we are looking at 14,000 children about to die in the next 48 hours. What words will we now use? We have set the lowest bar in telling ourselves we are very good. We let troops through Shannon. Ireland's exports of dual-use goods to Israel increased sevenfold in 2023. We are trading with Israel and we have failed to enact the occupied territories Bill. We learn now that tomorrow, in the face of 14,000 children about to die, a memo will go to the Government. Shame and embarrassment come to mind but, most of all, let us act and show leadership.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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The Palestinian people are being starved to death in Gaza. We have heard again and again, rightly, about the 14,000 babies who face death from deliberate starvation in the next 48 hours. This is while the Israeli Government is openly boasting about the ethnic cleansing being carried out. Let us not forget that the bombing continues, with 82 Palestinians killed by this indiscriminate bombing in the last 24 hours. We should not allow a few late weasel words in the West to obscure the fundamental truth that this is a genocide made in the West. It is one that could not be happening if it were not for the funding, the arming and the supporting by the US, Germany, Britain, the European Union and many other countries.

What does the Irish Government do? It is true that the Irish Government has good, strong words of criticism of the war crimes of Israel. We could do with a very clear statement describing what is happening as genocide. What actions, however, does the Government take? Ultimately, its defence is that it is less complicit - less complicit than Starmer or Biden or Trump. The Minister of State and his Government, however, are still complicit because they are not acting to stop a genocide. They are dragging their heels on the occupied territories Bill. We heard from Deputy O'Gorman about the advice that he received and that has been published by The Ditch. The Attorney General was clear: it is a political choice not to proceed with that Bill. The Government is allowing Israeli war bonds to be traded in the European Union, authorised by the Irish Central Bank, shamefully. The Government is doing nothing - hear no evil, see no evil - about the thousands of tonnes of munitions flying illegally through Irish airspace to be used in this genocide. When I raised this with the Tánaiste two weeks ago, I got a letter back from the Minister for Transport saying that an examination is ongoing and that a considerable amount of documentation has had to be scrutinised. This has been happening for nine months, during which time the airlines have said it is happening and this has been on their waybills. We know a draft report was finished on 13 March. When will the report be published? When will action be taken to stop these overflights?

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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It is great to have the Minister of State here. We are all here speaking on the same matter, looking at the photos and the videos of what is happening in Gaza and the horrendous situation playing out right in front of our eyes. I utterly condemn the continuing Israeli military operations. I wish to speak about the fresh hell the Israeli Government has brought upon the Gazan people. There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and the resumption of unhindered humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza at an unprecedented scale. Israel's humanitarian blockade is pushing Gaza closer to a hunger crisis, to starvation. Israel is starving the people of Palestine, and the blockade must be lifted immediately. What we are witnessing is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis and a catastrophe. The death toll among Palestinian civilians, particularly women and children, is absolutely unconscionable. The destruction of homes, schools, hospitals and other vital infrastructure is not accidental; it is systematic. We see the use of collective punishment, the denial of humanitarian aid and the deliberate targeting of civilian life and dignity. Let us be honest: these are not isolated incidents; they are war crimes. They are grave breaches of international humanitarian law. They demand a response that matches the scale of the injustice.

Palestinians in Gaza are still waiting for aid after Israel's so-called ending of the 11-week blockade on Sunday. The UN says its teams have not been able to distribute aid. UNRWA, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, has said supplies are "sit waiting" in a warehouse just a few hours' drive from Gaza. People in Gaza tell the BBC that the situation is "getting harder every [single] day" as global experts warn of an imminent famine in the territory. It is said that 14,000 babies are at risk of dying in the next 48 hours. It is a shame on this world that we are allowing this to happen. Even to imagine what 14,000 little bodies, little people, look like and to think that the world is standing by - we are standing by and looking at starvation and those babies dying.

Europe cannot continue with business as usual. The EU-Israel Association Agreement, which was built upon mutual respect for human rights and democratic values, must be reassessed. Israel has absolutely breached those contractual obligations. Those values are not being upheld - not even remotely. Therefore, it is time for the European Union not only to review but to suspend that agreement. To continue trade and co-operation under these conditions would render those principles meaningless.

I acknowledge the strong and principled role the Irish Government has played throughout this crisis. Our voice on the international stage has been clear and consistent. I commend An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin. His leadership, his engagement with the UN, his call for a ceasefire and his efforts to ensure accountability have been recognised across Europe and beyond.

Ireland must continue to lead not just with words but actions. That is why this House must give serious consideration to the occupied territories Bill as soon as possible. This legislation would prohibit the import of goods from illegal settlements in occupied territories in an Act that aligns with international law and Ireland's long-standing commitment to human rights.

Let us be clear. This is not about being anti-Israel. It is about being pro-human rights, opposing the illegal annexation of land and saying international law must mean something even when politically inconvenient. Fianna Fáil has always stood for the principles of peace, justice and international co-operation. Our history in foreign affairs is rooted in the defence of multilateralism, diplomacy and the rule of law. In that spirit, we must all speak with a moral clarity and act with resolve. It is not a time for ambiguity; it is a time for Europe and Ireland to match our words with action. The people of Palestine have waited far too long for justice and for real and definite help. We owe it to them and the principles we claim to uphold - we need to act now.

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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I strongly condemn in the most certain terms the brutality Israel is inflicting upon the innocent people of Gaza. Equally, I strongly condemn in the most certain terms the atrocious acts committed by Hamas, particularly those of 7 October 2023. The murder, maiming and unjustifiable terror being waged on innocent people on both sides of this conflict have no place in our world yet they continue, to the horror of the world looking in. The continuing Israeli military operations which have brought fresh and unwavering suffering to the people of Gaza are blatantly in breach of the ceasefire, international law and basic humanity. There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and the resumption of unhindered humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza at an unprecedented scale.

Israel's blockade is pushing Gaza into a hunger crisis. It must be lifted immediately. The UN's head of humanitarian aid said that unless aid reaches the people of Gaza, 14,000 babies could die in 48 hours. It is wrong in principle and in law to inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population whatever the circumstances. This behaviour clearly constitutes a war crime. It is wholly unacceptable to contemplate the mass displacement of the people of Gaza or to talk about permanent occupation. Not only is it an affront to decency and international law, history tells us it offers no solution. Ireland remains convinced the implementation of the two-state solution is the only way to establish lasting peace and security for Israel and Palestine and the wider region. Ireland must continue to work with international partners to step up our efforts and achieve this goal. I recognise the stance Ireland has taken from the outset of this conflict in particularly and officially recognising the State of Palestine along with Norway and Spain a year ago this week. For a long time, we were one of few nations in the West that spoke out against the crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.

I have just come from the first meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Youth. The young people for whom we are setting policy today will study what we are living through as part of their history. I have no doubt they will look back with shock and, rightly, disgust at the delayed response from so many in the West - the EU, the current US Administration and others - and ask how this was allowed to go on for so long. Thousands upon thousands of children, women and men have been displaced, murdered, starved, chased from their homes and terrorised. Aid workers and journalists have been killed, hospitals have been levelled and genocide has been committed. Vital aid has been prevented from reaching people who are now being starved. History will judge what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank today. It will not be kind nor should it be. A two-state solution is the only solution to this issue. Those responsible for war crimes must answer for them. We should suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement. The EU needs to move a lot faster than it has to date. Innocent people in Palestine and Israel deserve to live in peace, free from the threat from Hamas and the Israeli military. The international community must now step up and act to prevent further war crimes, murder, killings and the displacement and terrorising of an innocent people.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I speak not only in condemnation but in deep outrage at what we are witnessing in Gaza. More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past 19 months, children have been bombed in their homes, hospitals and shelters, starved due to the denial of aid and treated as pawns in a brutal campaign that flies in the face of every principle of international humanitarian law. Entire families have been wiped out in a matter of minutes, refugee camps have been flattened and hospitals have been deliberately targeted. These are not unfortunate by-products of conflict; they are deliberate acts and war crimes. We must call them that, which they are. Bombing and starving children is not just immoral; it is genocide. The Israeli Government has ignored calls for ceasefires, violated international law and imposed a blockade that has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. The UN warns that 14,000 children may die before this weekend if aid does not reach them. That is not just a tragedy, it is a policy choice. The release of all hostages is essential. The atrocities of 7 October were abhorrent and must never be forgotten or excused but they do not justify the systemic and disproportionate assault on an entire civilian population. Collective punishment is illegal and unacceptable. It must end.

This crisis has laid bare the urgent need for meaningful international action. I welcome the decision by the European Union to review the EU-Israel association agreement over human rights concerns. This is a long overdue and vital step. Ireland and Spain first called for this review in early 2024. I commend our Government for persisting on this front. I ask it to look at a full suspension. The reality is that trade and economic co-operation cannot continue as normal with a state committing clear violations of international law. The EU must go further and suspend trade preferences where human rights abuses are evident. We must stop rewarding impunity. That is why the occupied territories Bill, which I have always fully supported, is more important than ever. With the EU now moving to review trade co-operation with Israel, the legal and international context for this Bill has fundamentally shifted. This legislation can no longer be delayed. It is not symbolic; it is a real, lawful expression of our values and obligations under international law. It is necessary. I welcome that it will be brought before the Cabinet next week.

I raise growing concerns about the implementation of the IHRA definition of antisemitism in this context. While we must always challenge and condemn antisemitism in all its forms, we cannot allow a definition, even one that is well intentioned, to be used as a shield for a government's actions or to silence criticism of clear human rights violations. The lead drafter of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, warned that it is being misused to stifle free expression and legitimate debate. It is deeply worrying that adopting this definition in full could impede Ireland's ability to speak out clearly and credibly on Gaza or prevent civil society from advocating for Palestinian rights. Criticising the actions of the Israeli state is not antisemitic. It is our duty when those actions constitute war crimes.

This House cannot look away. We must continue to push, as this Government has pushed, for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, the lifting of the blockade, unfettered humanitarian access, legal accountability for war crimes under international law, the advancement of the occupied territories Bill, a full review of EU-Israel relations with a human rights focus and a suspension of the trade agreement for the breach of those human rights, and to ensure no flights in or out of this country are harbouring war weapons and that war bonds are not being sold through the Central Bank.

Peace, as we have seen in this country, will not come through violence or domination. It will only come through reconciliation, justice and a recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, dignity and a future free from occupation and fear.

The Taoiseach has made extremely strong statements today and in the past, as has the Tánaiste. I welcome the fact we have such strong leadership in this country. It is acknowledged internationally that the position of the Irish Government is one of supporting the people of Palestine. A more collective understanding of the efforts the Government is, and has been, making is needed across this House, particularly in the context of the EU and trade. While I support and wish to see the occupied territories Bill advanced, there are natural concerns from Government. Hopefully, those concerns can now be overcome. The matter is coming before the Cabinet next week and we will hopefully see progress in that regard.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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First, I extend solidarity with the people of Palestine. What we bear witness to in Gaza is a starvation of a nation. The response of many world leaders over the past 19 months has been non-existent. It has been the actions of millions of ordinary people the world over who, at every moment, have challenged their governments’ failures. The Government has failed meaningfully to defend international law and to deploy, in most cases, meaningful sanction in the face of humanity. It has provided political cover for the genocide that has unfolded before our eyes. In the worst instances, ordinary people have challenged the Government for arming the rogue force.

The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste want to laud themselves as being one of the most pro-Palestinian governments. I caution them that their moral superiority is relative. In this case, it is relative to those who have provided political cover and weaponry of genocide to Israel and morally superior to those who in the past week have just woken up to the genocide after more than 50,000 people have been murdered and with 80 days of total siege. It is only now, when 14,000 babies are at the brink of death, the Government believes it is warranted to conduct a review of Israel for breaking human rights obligations. While I acknowledge the Government has joined the ICJ case, the Government believes this leaves it as the most pro-Palestinian in the world. It is a sad day for Ireland.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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That is exactly what the Israeli Government accuses us of.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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A review is nearly 19 months too late. How long will it take for the Government to wake up? It has been investigating the legal transit of genocide-bound weapons through Ireland for nine months. Where is that report? It is time to recognise Israel for what it is, namely, a rogue state that has to be sanctioned as soon as possible.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I add my voice to the many voices in this House and the thousands of the voices around the world condemning the Israeli Government on what is legitimately described as a calculated, ethnically-cleansing slaughter of the Palestinian people. Israel is demolishing their homelands and denying them their true birth rights. Before the eyes of the world, Israel is systematically demolishing Gaza zone by zone. It is flatting infrastructure, including homes, hospitals and water facilities, and using starvation as a weapon of war. It is flouting international humanitarian law and attempting to diminish the International Court of Justice. We are witnessing Israel’s propaganda machine in full motion when it declares that these are legitimate acts of war and a justification for killing innocent people, including women and children. A total of 53,528 are dead and more than 1,119 wounded, not to mention the killing of 166 journalists and a shocking 224 humanitarian workers. Some 300 UNRWA workers have also been murdered. The language of mainstream media, with words such as ground offensive or ground operation, is repeated instead of calling it what it actually is, namely, a full scale invasion by anyone’s moral compass.

The renowned Palestinian humanitarian rights activist, Mahmoud Nawaja, recently visited Leinster House. He said that complicity is the enemy of his people and that boycott and divestment are the two non-violent tactics anyone can use. For example, the Australian company funding Norwegian pension funds has divested from former Israeli military industries. What can we do and what should we do? As a nation, we must stand with the downtrodden and the oppressed. We must stand with the besieged Palestinian people against apartheid and genocide. We must introduce the occupied territories Bill now and stop being complicit in the use of Shannon Airport. The Government must stop acquiescing in the act of selling Israeli war bonds through the Irish Central Bank. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment must be held responsible for deploying dual licenses for products and components that are used for military purposes in the destruction of the Palestinian people. Government contracts with Israeli military companies must be forensically examined and transparent. The people of Palestine will always have the support of the Irish people. We say no to genocide, apartheid and colonisation.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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This is not a numbers game but rather a humanitarian catastrophe. The whole population of Gaza, including 930,000 children, are now in famine. With our own history of an enforced famine at the hands of an occupier, the Irish people have a unique understanding and empathy for the people of Gaza. Some 66,000 children suffer severe malnutrition and 14,000 babies are potentially facing death within 48 hours if aid does not reach them. These are not statistics; they make up sons, daughters and futures lost. There are no moral means to condone this by right-minded people.

We have all seen the horrific images that no parent or child should ever have to witness of children being buried under rubble, hospitals turning to ashes and families being torn apart. We in Independent Ireland say that our neutrality gives us a powerful voice. Ireland’s neutral status, which is enshrined in the triple lock system, is not a weakness but a strength. We are not beholden to any military alliance. That makes us a trusted broker, especially for those who have no voice in the big geopolitical arenas.

Our role is not to take sides but to push for peace. This war is brutal on all sides. Israel has the right to protect its citizens. No one denies that. Collective punishment and the displacement of 90% of Gaza’s population, the blocking of food and medicine and the bombing of hospitals is not defence, however. It is a breach of international law. We must be honest about the facts and not blinded by emotion or ideology. There has been 356 incidents of settler violence in the West Bank this year alone. Entire Bedouin communities have been displaced. A total of 431 Palestinian structures have been demolished. This is not how peace is built. Out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 27 have ceased operations and the remaining are functioning at partial capacity, which severally limits the availability of medical care.

We must also acknowledge the pain and fear in Israel where more than 1,700 lives have been lost, including 260 innocent festival goers on 7 October. We do not condone violence by Hamas. Hamas is not a partner for peace. Its actions, rocket attacks, tunnels and hostage-taking have deepened suffering for Palestinians and Israelis alike. If Israel continues on its current path, however, it strengthens rather than weakens Hamas.

Where does Ireland come in? We do not come in through grandstanding or expelling ambassadors. Expelling the Israeli Ambassador would close doors to peace rather than open them. It would be immature and dangerous. As I said before, we need open dialogue, not empty gestures that makes us feel good but leave people suffering. We can lead diplomatically. Ireland must push at every international level, be that at the EU, the UN or directly with the United States, to demand: a full and immediate ceasefire; the release of hostages; full humanitarian access to Gaza; an end to settlement expansion in the West Bank; and most importantly, the resumption of peace talks aimed at a two-state solution. Independent Ireland calls for the Irish State to be practical, not performative. We need to use our relationship with the USA Administration in particular to advocate for peace. We need to work through backchannels, which is the kind of diplomacy Ireland excels at, to bring both sides back from the brink. We have done this before. Ireland played a proud role in peacekeeping from the Congo to Lebanon. We understand conflict. We lived through our own Troubles. We also understand that peace is not made by shouting but by listening. This is our chance to live up to the promise of our neutrality. We should not sit idle but rather lead quickly, firmly and consistently in the name of humanity. While peace is still possible, it is important it must start with an immediate ceasefire and allowing aid to be delivered without any restrictions. In the most ironic way, I ask all Members to pray for peace in the Holyland.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Israel and its government have murdered 53,000 people. The grim horror of that sentence is still incredible when you think about it. Hamas has murdered 1,700 people, is a terrorist organisation and must release all hostages. However, Israel is killing 51 people for every person Hamas has killed. My colleague, Deputy Collins, is right that it is not about numbers, but it is about proportion and 51 times the level of blood has been shed by the IDF than has been shed by Hamas, a terrorist organisation. That reflects what Israel is today.

I never imagined I would ever see this level of death and destruction happen in the world in real time and I never imagined most of the international community would turn their back to it and ignore it as well. One of the reasons it is happening in real time is because it is underwritten by the European Union and the United States. Ursula von der Leyen strode the world stage distorting Irish foreign policy, distorting the views of the Irish people and she said the European Union would protect and support Israel. What is happening is incredible. We are seeing bombs land on hospitals, bombs land on schools and bombs land on tents. The bodies of babies are being atomised by armaments being supplied by the United States of America. That underwriting by the West is an absolute kick in the moral authority of the West that will be felt in the future. The West can never look to a conflagration or conflict anywhere else and speak with moral authority anymore as it allows this to happen. I am quite shocked the West has not broken the blockade on food coming into Gaza. It is an absolute disgrace that the West is allowing this to happen and is not dropping food into Gaza.

There is no doubt this is a genocide. There is no doubt either that this is not protecting Israel. Israel is foolish if it thinks murdering children is a protection of its people and its borders. The murder of children historically has been a force of radicalisation. It has been a force to make other people take up violence against the state committing those atrocities. Our own history echoes significantly with what is happening in Palestine, where there is enforced famine and state killings of innocent civilians. Irish people in the main see themselves in the eyes of Palestinians who are suffering in Gaza and the West Bank. That the West Bank is being planted with illegal settlers and that this State and other states are buying products from those illegal settlers and allowing them to gain profit from the illegal plantation of those parts of Palestine is incredible. In many ways, if you allow people to profit from this level of murder and destruction, you are in some way responsible for it as well.

The European Union has been a disgrace on this issue, it has been shocking on it and it is dragging its feet considerably on the EU-Israel association agreement. That should be brought to an end. This Government, while stronger than those of most other European countries, is not doing enough on that. We need to speak more strongly, more openly and independently of other people in the European Union.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Today it is 80 days since the humanitarian aid blockade of Gaza began. This regime has long since passed the threshold for what would constitute legitimate defence following the horrific and condemnable Hamas attacks on October 7. This was already genocide before the deliberate and inhumane blocking of lifesaving food, medical supplies and shelter, not to mention continued bombing, but new lows continue to be reached. The UN says no aid has yet been distributed in Gaza despite a few lorries starting to cross the border after 11 weeks. It estimates 600 trucks a day are required to begin tackling this chronic humanitarian crisis, so nothing is happening in real terms. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said today that as many as 14,000 babies could die in Gaza if Israel does not immediately let aid in. These babies are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and many of them will die over the next number of hours if food is not supplied. What is this if not another Holocaust? To be clear, it is sanitised extermination. There is no defensive justification. It is murder, pure and simple. The entire conflict over decades has been one-sided in terms of the atrocities committed, with Israel responsible for multiples of deaths. There have been ratios of 20:1, 30:1 or 50:1 depending on the sources and time periods. One life is precious and any life is precious, but the facts are undeniable. Despite this the world watches and lets the murder continue, except for a few lone voices.

It appears things have got so horrific that even the EU, or at least some of its constituent member states, may be waking up. At this week’s meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas announced the European Commission would review the EU-Israel association agreement. We have yet to see what details emerge, but even from a signalling perspective this marks the first formal response to mounting calls for stronger EU action over the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is long overdue even if it is too little too late and if the Government was involved in pushing for this then fair play, but we need real, tangible action and not platitudes. The EU has a preferential trade agreement with Israel that allows Israeli goods to enter European markets with reduced tariffs. Suspending this would significantly impact the Israeli economy and potentially force the Israeli government to reconsider its policy. There are a whole load of areas of co-operation where engagement could be frozen and in this respect I ask the Minister of State to ask the Tánaiste whether there have been any discussions on whether the EU could restrict banking and financial transactions with Israeli institutions that support settlement expansion and military operations. This would make it harder for Israel to fund its activities in Gaza and the West Bank. For our part, we need to hurry up and bring the occupied territories Bill forward at the earliest opportunity. While it was good to see the arms embargo Bill pass to the next Stage in the Seanad unopposed, I hope the Government will continue in that spirit over the coming months and get it passed through the Dáil.

As I have said before, and feel compelled to say again because of the propaganda machine out there, I have nothing against the Jewish people. I condemn antisemitism. I acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. However, it is a powerful state that is abusing its power and committing atrocities. I feel for those families attacked by Hamas and condemn it outright, but this is nothing, in number terms only, compared to the atrocities being carried out against innocent Palestinians. As I and others have said, one life is sacred, but anyone with a moral compass will recognise Israel has committed way more atrocities. This is why we in Ireland stand steadfast with the oppressed in Gaza. We know what it is like to be oppressed and we will not be intimidated in the face of any threats from the Israeli government or indeed from the White House. It is good the rest of the EU and Europe appears to be finally waking up, but we will see. We must remember change only comes about when the bullies are confronted head on.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Every time we speak in this Chamber about Palestine the situation is worse, but it is still important to speak about it in this Chamber, in our national Parliament, because that is a privilege people whose voices are being silenced do not have. Some 14,000 babies in Gaza are at risk of dying if humanitarian aid continues to be blocked. These are innocent, helpless lives, yet there is still no breakthrough. Tragically, we are not actually talking about them being "at risk" any more as it looks like it will become a certainty unless those blockades are removed. That would mean 14,000 innocent, helpless lives lost in fear, in pain and in misery.

Having spent time in Palestine I have seen at first hand the utter disdain with which the Israel Defense Forces treat Palestinians daily, and that was before this escalation. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like now and I do not think any of us can. However, collectively we are heartbroken, devastated and sickened. That is because this is not hidden but happening right in front of us. That is what makes it really hard to understand and why we cannot comprehend why it just is not stopping and why the EU and the US are not doing more. It is not just horrific; it is deliberate, it is avoidable and it is happening in full view of the world. This week Israel has launched another intensification and that is despite international condemnation.

Because of Israel's deliberate actions, the humanitarian system in Palestine is crumbling. Food supplies are depleted, children are starving to death. UN agencies are being forced to shut operations right when they are needed the very most. UNRWA cannot fulfil its mandate any more. Aid workers, some of the kindest, bravest souls there are in our world, are being killed. Essential supplies are being used as a bargaining chip. Aid is being weaponised. That is the very essence of a war crime. It is a clear breach of international humanitarian law. Ireland has been a strong but often lonely voice on the international stage in support of the people of Palestine. We were among the first to formally recognise Palestine and intervene on the genocide case in the International Court of Justice. We have called Israel's actions out for what they are - war crimes.

As an elected representative, I have worked with Sadaka and others to help influence Irish, EU and UN foreign policy. Last week, I met again with the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, as I have done regularly since I was elected a councillor. She thanked Ireland for showing our continued international leadership. What struck me the most was that so many of her colleagues are lonely voices in the countries where they are posted. Many of her fellow ambassadors are still fighting uphill battles to get their governments in their countries to speak up for Palestine. I am so proud of the way in which Ireland has supported our ambassador of Palestine. I am in awe of her strength and all that she is doing for her people. Last week, she asked me to do something simple but powerful. She asked me to help Ireland use our diplomatic voice to influence the United States and the EU, which have significant sway and must do more to bring about a ceasefire. I commend my colleagues in the EU, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and the Tánaiste, because yesterday we saw some of that influence come to bear at EU level. We saw the correct and, in my view, overdue decision to review the EU-Israel association agreement. Given the ever-worsening situation in Palestine, that agreement should be suspended while the review happens. That is the bargaining chip the EU has right now if it backs the survival of 14,000 babies over the destruction of innocent, helpless lives. Of course we absolutely condemn Hamas's horrific attack on 7 October, but nothing justifies the collective punishment of an entire population like this.

What Israel is doing in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank is not self-defence. It is the use of overwhelming force against a trapped civilian population and it has to stop. Ireland has not been afraid to say that loud and clear on the international stage but we need others to do it with us if we are to have a meaningful impact on Israel, and if we are to release those blockades and save those 14,000 babies.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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A few weeks ago, I raised the issue of Gaza here on the occasion of statements in respect of the European Council. I noted that we needed a united European voice in response to the conflict. Unfortunately, across the Continent we have not seen that united voice. I certainly welcome yesterday's news regarding the review of the trade deal but, sadly, since then the situation in Gaza has not changed. In fact, it has worsened, with fears of more deaths, starvation and destruction. It was reported this morning that 93 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza yesterday but, according to the UN, Israel's new security processes are preventing it from reaching Palestinians on the ground. I am at a loss for words at this stage of the conflict, knowing what we know now and seeing the atrocities unfold directly before our eyes, that the people of Gaza are being led to forced starvation. I have said before in this House that the memory of famine lives large in the Irish people. The idea that any state would be deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war is unconscionable.

I welcome the EU foreign affairs chief's indication that there will be a review of our trade arrangements with Israel, but I worry about the timeline of this. The people of Gaza need real solutions and driven action. They need it now, and Israel cannot be allowed to continue getting away in this manner. I particularly welcome the comments of the Taoiseach today in the Chamber that he not only welcomes the review but believes there should be a suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement while that is taking place. This would obviously go far further than the occupied territories Bill, which I and many other people hope to see passed in this House and in respect of which the Government proposes to bring legislation. Suspending the EU-Israel trade agreement would prevent trade between Israel and the entire EU bloc. The Government statement on that is welcome and I ask others around Europe to consider it.

The response of the Israeli Government to this conflict is wholly disproportionate. Whether or not there are breaches of international law - I believe there are and agree with the Taoiseach that there is a war crime here - we are seeing a complete lack of morality on the part of Israel, which has led to the atrocities in this conflict. To inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population is immoral. What has continued to unfold day by day in Gaza is plain and simple genocide. We must remember that those who are suffering the most at the heart of this conflict are vulnerable children, the sick and the elderly.

I understand there are complexities and challenges to ensure the safe arrival of aid trucks to the region. However, the UN is now estimating that approximately 600 trucks per day are needed to address this humanitarian crisis. With only 93 trucks entering the region yesterday, this is entirely inadequate. We need a complete flooding of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We need the work of agencies like UNRWA to be supported. The Irish Government has not only supported it but protected it from other countries' attempts to demonise it. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb or desensitised. Judging from the emails that come into my inbox and the calls we get, the Irish people are not desensitised to this issue. There is a clear humanitarian blockade directly impacting on the assistance of people on the ground. Israel is pushing Gaza closer and closer to hunger and crisis.

Nothing I have said takes away from the horrible atrocity that took place on 7 October, the need to release hostages or the need for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace in the long term. We have to cry stop, however, when such disproportionate action is taking place. Ireland has been a lonely voice on this for some time, as the previous speaker said, but t is welcome to see others coming to the table. I noted the presence of members of the House of Commons Procedure Committee in the House today when the Taoiseach made his comments. There was a very different debate in other countries on this issue. I welcome the fact that in some countries, people are waking up to the horror that is happening in Gaza. Violence without repercussions is just not tolerable.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Since this tragedy began 20 months ago, we have heard some of the most passionate and sincere contributions in this House from people whose concern is palpable about what we see transpiring before our eyes. Our inboxes over recent days have been inundated by correspondence from members of the Irish public right across the country who are concerned, troubled and heartbroken by what they see happening in Palestine. At the risk of repeating myself, when this conflict commenced with the Hamas attack and kidnapping on a kibbutz in Israel 20 months ago, I pointed out here in the Chamber that the terrorist organisation Hamas deserves to be brought to account. I also pointed out, however, that we have a right to expect that sovereign governments' behaviour will be far better than the behaviour of any terrorist organisation. The Netanyahu regime has shown itself in the intervening period. He has shown himself to be a monstrous leader and his Government a monstrous authority that has done so much damage not just to the Palestinian people whose lives they have taken and whose children and women they have slaughtered but to the State of Israel. The State of Israel has a right to exist. I respect and love the Jewish people but I deplore, detest and reject Netanyahu and his people.

We should not, however, be here today to just engage in the politics of condemnation because what the people who are emailing us are saying is enough talk, let us see some action. I am proud this Government has taken action and has been a leader among governments, not just in Europe but in the world, and while that may not be recognised sometimes in this House, it is bloody well recognised in neighbouring countries like Qatar, Türkiye, Morocco and many other countries in the region that Ireland has been firmly on the side of the people of Palestine.

I want to put forward a couple of quick proposals. Convoys of aid are gathered on the border waiting to get in while children are at risk of dying. Why does the UN not have the capacity to go in and provide safe corridors of access for those aid convoys? Why is the EU not doing what Deputy Tóibín suggested in providing airdrops of aid into the country? If the UN cannot do it and the EU cannot do it, why do we not try to put together an alliance of like-minded countries that would have the courage to do it?

We need to highlight to the world the purveyors of arms to Netanyahu. These countries and these people might as well go and slaughter the children of Palestine themselves because when they provide the arms to the government, they know what is going to be done with them. The US, Germany and the UK seem to be the principal providers. I do not think we could embarrass the Trump regime, but we can make an appeal to the decent American people over the head of Trump. We do not need to be skilled historians to understand the complexity of the relationship between Germany and the State of Israel, but Germany needs to realise it is not assisting the State of Israel by assisting Netanyahu. In fact, if it wants to assist the long-term development of the State of Israel, it will do it best by embargoing Netanyahu and his regime. Likewise, the British Government would do well to wake up and see the damage it is doing as well.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement has been referred to, and what the Taoiseach said this morning was valuable because to review something is purely tokenistic if it is going to take ages and if it is not accompanied by an immediate commitment to suspend.

We need to identify and name those countries that provide succour to Netanyahu or fail to condemn. They, too, are complicit. They, too, have the blood of the innocents on their hands. Let us all unite in calling for an immediate ceasefire and a lasting peace.

My wife and I look at TV every evening. We look at those little children with their wonderful brown eyes. We wonder what will happen to those children who survive this atrocity. What will they be doing and what will their attitude be in ten years' time? One thing is certain. Unless urgent action is taken, they will not have to be radicalised.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Looking at what happened to an ambulance and all its crew travelling through Gaza, I wonder what the response of the IDF would be to an humanitarian corridor, but everything needs to be tried. Listening to the contributions of both the Government and the Opposition this afternoon, it is worth pointing out that many of the statements from both sides of the House could be construed as antisemitic according to the IHRA definition to which this Government signed us up. While every effort must be made to stamp out antisemitism, the IHRA definition must not be used as a pretext to criminalise activism against genocide, as has been seen in some parts of Europe and the US.

There are more than 53,000 dead in Gaza now, the majority of them women, children and the elderly. Nine aid tracks were allowed to enter Gaza on Monday. This is a trickle when we need a flood and is only permitted so that Israel can turn around and say it is letting supplies in. It is cynical and callous but it is predictable. There are 2 million people starving in Gaza and that is not an accident. They are being starved just as surely as they are being bombed. The people of Gaza are being denied access to food, water and medicine. What shelter they can cobble together from tarpaulins and sheet metal is woefully inadequate. Far from the lies and smokescreen surrounding the first attack on the Gazan hospital in October 2023, Israel is now deliberately targeting medical facilities and storage areas, such as at the Nasser hospital, which had half of its precious reserves of medical supplies destroyed.

The Israeli Government has said there will be no let-up and no negotiations. Some countries, such as Britain, Canada and France, are only now discussing possible targeted sanctions against named Israelis. This is hardly enough. If Ireland and the wider EU do not take concrete action now, we are giving carte blanche for the levelling of Gaza and its resettlement by Israel. This is not an exaggeration. This is the stated wish of Netanyahu. As a state, Israel must be held accountable for its action and for the wanton destruction and brutal violence that has rained down on the heads of Gazan children.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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The United Nations has reported that up to 14,000 children in Gaza are at risk of starving to death in the next 48 hours. That is the same number of children under the age of 18 living in Carlow. It is unimaginable to picture that amount of death for such innocent children - 14,000 childhoods erased in 48 hours. The genocide in Gaza is reaching levels of unimaginable horror. Yesterday, the EU Foreign Affairs Council met and agreed to take the softest action possible in reviewing the EU-Israel trade agreement and see whether Israel is in breach of Article 2 of the agreement, on respect for human rights and democratic principles. In the next two days, 14,000 children are expected to starve to death and the best the EU can muster up is a review into whether Israel is breaching respect for human rights.

Israel's crimes against humanity, its deliberate attacks on hospitals, civilians and medical personnel, could not be documented any more clearly but the EU is still unsure as to whether Israel is breaching a respect for human rights. We need to be frank with our EU counterparts. The EU is complicit in this genocide and in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Arms and public funds continue to flow from Europe into Israel. We need sanctions on Israel and an arms embargo. We need to stop the flow of arms through Shannon and Irish airspace to Israel. We need an immediate cancellation of the EU trade deal.

Israel is a rogue, terrorist state and needs to be treated as one. While ours is only one state within the EU 27, there is so much more we can do at home. We can enact the occupied territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. All the main parties gave their support to the occupied territories Bill in the run-up to the general election but, of course, it has fallen into the category of the broken election promises of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We need to end the sale of Israeli bonds by the Irish Central Bank. It is the inaction of the EU and our part of the international community that has emboldened Israel to take its genocide to new levels because it sees and feels that it is untouchable, thanks to its supporters within the EU.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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What we are witnessing in Gaza is an humanitarian disaster. Thousands of people have been killed. Thousands more are missing under the debris and rubble and more than 1.5 million face starvation.

Entire neighbourhoods have been obliterated. Children are dying of hunger. Hospitals, schools and refugee camps have been bombed, and still the world hesitates.

I condemn the atrocities carried out by Hamas on 7 October. The killing of civilians and taking of hostages are crimes, but we cannot allow this condemnation to be used as a cover-up for what is happening right now. This is not self-defence. This is collective punishment that is targeted destruction of civilian life on a massive scale. These are war crimes. This is a genocide and the blockade must end immediately.

Ireland cannot and must not turn away. Neither should the European Union. This is why the European Commission's recent announcement to review the agreement is not only welcome but is long overdue. A growing number of member states, including Spain and Slovenia, are joining Ireland in demanding action. There is now clear momentum across Europe for an economic response to what is unfolding in Gaza. Let us be honest that diplomatic statements are no longer enough. The EU has real leverage. Trade and access are not just policy tools but they are instruments of accountability. The continued provision of economic benefits while war crimes are being committed is indefensible. Ireland cannot wait for a consensus to find its voice. We must lead. We must speak plainly. We must act with the same urgency we would demand if this suffering were happening elsewhere, because if we say we believe in human rights, now is the time to prove it.

The programme for Government committed to progressing legislation that would ban goods from the occupied territories and a direct response to international law and the International Court of Justice's opinion. That includes the occupied territories Bill. I have raised this multiple times. We need to take a stand. It might just lead to momentum and it can start there.

I would like to speak briefly about a young man who I met in my constituency, Amir, and his host, Marina. Amir is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza. I have met him multiple times and he has told me about everything he has faced, but he still has hope in his heart. His heart is heavy. His family remains in Gaza. His father has been displaced by war. His mother has public health qualifications. His sister is studying medicine, while under fire, and a younger sister is still in school in Gaza. This family has strength, education and resilience but they are separated. I have asked the Tánaiste to really look into this case for family reunification and I would like to raise it again please.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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As a teenager, I was angered, interested and repulsed by the atrocities of the Second World War, as experienced through history classes, documentaries, Anne Frank's diaries and, in later years, exacerbated by visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau and Treblinka. Surely this would not and could not happen again. An end to man's inhumanity to man, morality and Maslow would ensure that we had moved on, but no. The daily news reports and images, and the evocative and graphic contributions by Members are proof positive that we do not learn from history.

The announcement of the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement yesterday is welcome but I am sad to say it is long overdue. Sanctions against Russia were implemented with urgency. Why not against Israel? A balance between commerce, economics, well-being and indeed life and death must be the bedrock of this 21st century. I would refer Members to Rutger Bregman's book, Utopia for Realists.

Enough is enough now. Hamas's cause has gained exponentially from the barbaric atrocities carried out by Israel against the most vulnerable Palestinian children, older people and women. The Arab countries' agreement on a joint plan for the reconstruction of Gaza is welcome and urgent. I fear that Israel's future and especially that of the lives of its innocent citizens hangs in the balance. They will become more exposed and vulnerable because of warmongering, provocative and lethal actions. The ceasefire is required now. Let aid and food through to the Palestinian people.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get the opportunity to say a few words about the mayhem that is taking place, in our time, in another country. I know that Ireland can do very little but we need to stand up and be counted. What is happening is barbaric. We see children, old people and women being starved. People are being starved in this day and age. In case someone does not know about it, I know what hunger is from my grandfather and grandmother telling me of when people were hungry here, what they went through and what they had to go through when they did not have anything to eat. They were poorer times. Gladly, that is not the case here in Ireland today. There is no one hungry like that, or there need not and should not be. It is terrible to starve people. They may not even have water. To think that this is happening.

I was glad to hear the Taoiseach talking today in the manner that he did. It was important. We have to play some part, through sanctions or whatever, and drive it home to Europe that it has to be more human. We are talking about a bit of humanity. What Hamas did was very wrong and it should release the rest of the hostages, because surely it is not blind to what is happening or what it is causing to happen. It should stop it and enact a ceasefire right away because it is terrible. I have youngsters who play football and so on and they ask why we cannot do something for these people. I know we can do very little but we need to stand up and say what we feel, because it is terrible. It is in our time. We are Members of the Irish Parliament and we must talk about it. We may offend others by doing this but so be it. It has gone way too far.

To think that children are going to starve, my God almighty, what is the world coming to at all? They cannot be let get away with this. I see that ordinary Israeli people are rising up against Netanyahu. He is not a man. There is no humanity at all in him to do what he is doing to innocent children who do not know what is going wrong. They are starving, thirsty, and their families have been broken up, with no contact with each other. You could not imagine that this is happening in our age, in the time we are living in. We had the atrocities of the Second World War, Auschwitz and all the terrible things that happened. We see films being made about it but this is reality. This is what is happening in front of our eyes. We can see it on the news every morning, noon and night. It is getting worse and worse. To think that Europe is making so little of it is disappointing. We are part of Europe.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for sharing his time with me and allowing me to contribute to this really important discussion. It is clear that we are witnessing war crimes every single day. Every day when we turn on our TV, open our phones and our newspapers, we can be in no doubt that what we are witnessing is a brutal war on children unfolding before our eyes. Every time we think things cannot get any worse and that there are no more lines to cross, we are proven wrong. The UN has told us that 14,000 children will die of starvation in the next two days, or less, because it made that statement yesterday. That is 14,000 innocent children on top of the 15,000 who have already been killed, murdered, in Gaza. That is on top of the 34,000 who have been injured. These are innocent children and innocent families who are living through hell, experiencing unimaginable pain, hunger, suffering and loss.

For 11 weeks, not a single ounce of aid has been allowed to enter Gaza. This is a deliberate action from Israel to simply deny people access to food, medicine and basic painkillers. The meagre amount of aid that has been allowed to enter Gaza this week will not change the fates of so many people who are facing starvation, who are injured, who require immediate medical attention, and the doctors and humanitarian workers who are risking everything to help those who need it the most. We saw only in the last few minutes a confirmation that Irish diplomats and other diplomats have been shot at in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers.

Ireland will not stand by. We are working on a daily basis with our colleagues in the EU. We have consistently called for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. We welcomed the move yesterday but it has not happened fast enough. We recognised Palestine almost a year ago. We have increased our contributions to UNRWA when others turned away and we will legislate for the goods imported from occupied territories. Above all, Ireland will not be silent. The suffering we are seeing, the bombardment of children and the innocent people of Gaza at the hands of Israel who are living in pure unadulterated hell as we stand here today is beyond comprehension. We need an urgent ceasefire. We need to see the release of all hostages. Above all, we need to see the full flow of aid and we need to see it now.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank everyone for their contributions. I will be clear from the outset, the attacks by Israel, which have all been detailed in this debate, are a further erosion of the principles of international humanitarian law that Israel is bound to comply with. People have been clear, as I am, in our condemnation of Hamas for its terror attack, for keeping people in captivity today and for the death and destruction it has brought to Palestinians and Israelis alike. Those hostages who Hamas is holding need to be released. We cannot be clearer about that.

Israel's plans to expand its military operation in Gaza and establish its prolonged presence is deeply alarming and will further compound an already dire situation. The humanitarian situation is horrific and the continuing blockade of humanitarian and commercial supplies for Gaza is rapidly deepening the hunger crisis in Gaza that has been outlined across this House. The UN World Food Programme has said that food stocks in Gaza are now depleted. UNICEF has warned that children are experiencing severe malnutrition. Israel must lift the blockade immediately. The obstruction of lifesaving aid by Israel is a violation of its international obligations. The Taoiseach said very clearly that it was a war crime. Israel must fulfil its obligations under international humanitarian law. The Israeli security cabinet decided on 4 May that it would take control of the distribution of humanitarian aid as a condition of lifting the blockade. The UN has described this as unacceptable. The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said it was a "cynical sideshow". Ireland has been clear from the outset. We get criticised a lot by the Opposition but we get equally trenchant criticism from the Israeli Government. When we meet people who have similar views to us on the situation there in terms of supporting a two-state solution and having huge empathy for the people of Palestine, I certainly get thanks from other ministers from other governments for the actions and the leadership of this particular Government.

The EU must of course speak clearly on this worrying development. The Taoiseach and others today, Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl in particular, have said the EU works on the basis of unanimity. It has not been possible to get unanimity on some of the actions we would like to take in this situation and the reasons have been well set out. I welcome that the High Representative, Kaja Kallas, issued a joint statement with Commissioners Šuica and Lahbib on 7 May stating that the new mechanism that Israeli was engaging in was counter to humanitarian principles as underlined by UN agencies and humanitarian partners. We call upon the Israeli Government to immediately reverse its current policy, lift the blockade and let the humanitarian aid in to everybody. We are also absolutely clear - we cannot be clearer - that there cannot be any forced displacement of civilian populations anywhere, let alone in Gaza, and that Israel cannot occupy the Gaza Strip. This was made clear by Ireland and other EU member states recently at the EU-Israel Association Council in February. I am glad that this particular agreement is being reviewed. People can criticise it. Ireland was the first country along with Spain to look for this review and we have worked really hard as everybody in the Opposition has asked us to on a multilateral basis using our reputation and our neutral status. We have done all that and that has led to this today. However, it takes time with other member states of the European Union. We have been consistent in our leadership at EU and international levels in response to this conflict and our diplomats work really hard under the policy direction of Government. It is absolutely disgraceful today that two Irish diplomats were part of a planned diplomatic visit by a group of diplomats to Jenin with the Palestinian Authority when the Israel Defense Forces shot at them. Thankfully, no one was harmed. However, it is totally unacceptable to shoot at anybody but putting diplomatic representatives at risk, ordinary civil servants who are just going about their job on behalf of their country, we condemn in the strongest possible terms. It is absolutely outrageous.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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If I may, with the Chair's indulgence, I was not aware of it at the time I spoke and I wish to add my condemnation of that appalling attack. It is a disgraceful attack on any diplomat particularly Irish diplomats.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, I think the word came through during this debate. I only heard about it when I came into the Chamber.

As I say, we have taken leadership on the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The Taoiseach was very strong again in calling for that agreement to be suspended while the review takes place. The EU must use all the levers at its disposal with the urgency that the situation demands. We in Ireland will use all the tools at our disposal to respond to this dreadful conflict and work towards achieving the aims.

We have provided over €87 million in support of the people of Palestine since January 2023. Of this, more than €75 million has been provided by Irish taxpayers through the Government in humanitarian assistance in response to the suffering caused by the conflict in Gaza since October 2023. This includes €58 million for UNRWA since 2023. Again, we have supported UNRWA. We have been steadfast in our support at an EU level and not everybody has been in the same position. We have provided humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza through other agencies, including the World Food Programme and the Red Cross and the Red Crescent societies. Through our rapid response initiative, 116 tonnes of relief supplies, including family tents, tarpaulins, blankets, water cans and hygiene kits have been provided. There are currently two consignments of humanitarian aid in Jordan awaiting entry to Gaza. Both consignments have received permission to enter Gaza but they cannot do so because of the blockade.

UNIFIL was mentioned. It is very important that we remember our colleagues in UNIFIL because we welcome it continuing to play an important role next-door in Lebanon. We have seen incidents of aggression by the Israeli army against UNIFIL forces in its area of operation and that is unacceptable. Our solidarity is with all of our soldiers and all of the other soldiers working under the UN flag. Any deliberate targeting of UNIFIL personnel or installations is a violation again of international humanitarian law.

We have been active at the ICJ. We have filed detailed written submissions with the ICJ in advisory proceedings concerning the obligations of Israel in relation to the UN and other international organisations in the occupied Palestinian territory. Those proceedings arose from a UN General Assembly resolution. People were asking us to bring resolutions to the General Assembly and this is one that Ireland co-sponsored last December following the adoption in October 2024 of legislation by the Israeli Parliament which in effect prohibits the presence and activities of UNRWA. It is a considered set of legal arguments which cogently reflects our national position. I strongly reject suggestions some have made that by only doing written statements, which is the normal procedure, that we are somehow deficient in our support. We are leading the way at EU and UN levels, exactly what the Opposition is accusing us of not doing. We are being criticised by the Israeli Government for all of this. I stand over everything we have done and will continue to do in the court.

The long-term impact of the physical and mental scars being inflicted on children in Gaza is totally unconscionable and others have mentioned this. It is difficult to imagine the untold suffering they have experienced. Government approval was secured in September last for Ireland to evacuate a number of sick children from Gaza for treatment and care, following an appeal from the WHO to address the current health needs of people from Gaza. To date, 12 children and their family members have come to Ireland under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. I am sure everybody is proud that Ireland was able to offer these children the care they desperately need. Both medical evacuations required the efforts of numerous Government Departments, led by the Department of Health, and our embassy team in Cairo. It was a whole-of-government approach and thanks go to everyone involved. This is consistent with our support for the people of Palestine.

I have to reject this thing that keeps coming up that somehow Ireland is complicit in this, or the Irish Government is complicit in this. It is completely and utterly unconscionable that that would be said in this House. We have led the way on this. We are doing absolutely everything we can. It requires decisions at the Security Council, over which some countries have the power of veto, at the UN and at the European Council of Ministers, where everybody has power of veto over foreign policy. We are absolutely steadfast in our support for the Palestinian people and for a peaceful two-state solution and in our opposition to anti-Semitism in this country and around the world, and are working hard on that. On this idea of being complicit, the Opposition should just stop using these words. It can criticise the Government, hold it to account and ask it to do more - that is what oppositions do. However, to say that somehow we are complicit is just disgraceful language from the Opposition. We will continue to speak as loudly as we have been and we will continue to be that voice that has been recognised all over the world.