Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for allowing me to share time. I was reading up on some of the latest developments and some quotes from some of the news articles about Israel struck me. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, regarding a recent bombing that ended up killing civilians, stated:

[They] made numerous efforts to minimise harm to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, including by delaying and even cancelling planned attacks when unexpected presence of civilians was identified ... The IDF carried out attacks only after a real-time assessment before the attack that the expected collateral damage to civilians and civilian property will not be excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated ... Several hours prior to strikes, the IDF ensured that the buildings were evacuated from civilians by various means, such as telephone calls and ... “roof-knocking” ... These buildings were not attacked until they were fully evacuated of civilian population.

Is that not a ghastly sentence to read out? It knew that there were a number of civilians. There was one family of 42, I think, who were killed in that attack. A Middle East correspondent, in respect of their investigation of this particular attack, stated:

... we heard vivid accounts of bombs obliterating homes, of fathers digging their little girls out from under rubble, of a teenager fatally injured as she lay in bed holding a teddy bear...

I just do not see how those two accounts can tally up. First, I cannot even contemplate clearing a space so you can blow it up. Second, there were children killed in that particular attack, and that is only one example of the numerous attacks that the IDF and others have laid out on the Palestinian people.

We cannot stand by. Ireland, passively, let this happen. We pride ourselves as being a country that holds up human rights both here and aboard. We also have an international reputation as purveyors of peace across the world, so it is beyond me why we are not participating in the global call for stronger sanctions against Israel to end some of these truly barbaric attacks on the Palestinian people.