Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about two brilliant and kind young women, two wonderful sisters who have worked in the Oireachtas. Yara Alagha used to work for the Civil Engagement Group and her sister Lara still works for the Green Party. This morning ten members of the Alagha family were killed by an Israeli bombing of their house in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. I am trying not to get emotional and I ask the House to bear with me. I would like to request a moment of silence to remember them and to mark this House’s expression of sympathy and solidarity with Yara, Lara and their entire family. I will read their names into the record: Powerful Amin Faluji Agha, 61 years old; Sanaa Jihad Muhammad Al Agha (Wadi), 52 years old; Ameen Ameen Al Agha, 27 years old; Safe Amin Jabara Agha, 21 years old; Wassim Amin Jabara Agha, 19 years old; Mohannad Amin Jabara Agha, 30 years old; Hind Abdul Hamid Abdul Jawad Agha, 27 years old; Talin Mohannad Amin Agha, two years and two months old; Asil Mohannad Amin Agha, one year and 21 days old; and Sama Samar Sobhi Jabara Al Agha, 15 years old.

In Gaza there is nowhere safe to hide and there is nowhere to escape. The Israeli military is flagrantly and brazenly targeting residential buildings, ambulances and mosques without even the pretence of targeting military installations. This is collective punishment at its basest and most murderous. Everything needs to be done to restrain the violence of Israel, which has total control over the life and death of the more than 2 million people kept in the open-air prison that is Gaza. The people of Palestine need us to work urgently for justice and peace. I would like us to have a minute's silence for the family of Yara and Lara.