Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Throughout 1995, thousands of Bosnian Muslims came from all over Bosnia to a small town called Srebrenica, where they were told they would be safe in a UN enclave in a war zone. In July 1995 the Serbian army overcame both the UN troops and the town and massacred 8,000 men. Despite increasing pressure on Israel from the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine, Israel has escalated the slaughter of innocent people over the weekend in Rafah. The bombardment of Rafah is eerily like the massacre that occurred in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War and we cannot allow that to become another stain on our humanity. Rafah was the only safe place left for Palestinians because Israel pushed them south, trapped them there and is now slaughtering them. It is a war crime to intentionally target an extremely densely populated area of civilians, including children who are starving, homeless and defenceless. There is no justification for this attack on Palestine and there never has been. Israel's goal is not one of self-defence and is not to eradicate Hamas; rather it is one of aggression. It is not to free the hostages. Israel's total aim is the annihilation and the eradication of millions of Palestinians who are in the Gaza Strip. The international community, like in 1995 with Srebrenica, is looking on and failing the people who are asking clearly for our help when Israel can bomb and execute a ground operation in Rafah as we have seen over the weekend.

Ireland has been a strong voice in favour of Palestine at EU and UN level, but we need to up the ante when it comes to that. We need to ensure there are peacekeepers in there on the ground who are stopping the bombardment we have seen. We must ensure the facilitation of aid and if necessary airdrop provisions to people. We need to use our relationship with the US - we can see it is beginning to change - to ask it to end its arms trading with Israel and stop providing financial assistance for what is a war machine. All eyes are now on Rafah and Palestinians are not target practice. Palestinians deserve justice and safety and the EU, UN, US and the international community need to step up now and take action to stop the mass slaughter of innocent civilians.