Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate what Senator Clonan said. He spoke with a heavy heart.

I, too, speak with a heavy heart on Israel's genocidal war against the people of Gaza, which has now been going on for 200 days. Thirty-four thousand people have been killed and many more are missing. Today at Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, central Gaza, Palestinian Civil Defence workers are uncovering mass graves filled with hundreds of corpses. Some of these corpses have been found with their hands and feet bound and some are children. Israel has systematically invaded hospitals using the flimsy pretence of fighting Hamas. It is invading hospitals and it is rounding up and summarily executing people.

Israeli soldiers claim they are fighting terrorism but they are actually acting like terrorists and committing war crimes. Their leaders have no intention of holding them accountable. They have been given a licence to kill any civilian they come across. The intensity of the bombing has lessened but the Israelis are now using hunger and disease as weapons of war, which is criminal and inhumane. Israel is continuing to block the delivery of any adequate amount of aid to Gaza. American and European calls for Israel to facilitate aid deliveries fall flat when America and European countries continue to provide Israel with weapons, aid, diplomatic cover and preferential trading arrangements. People are starving and Gaza's healthcare infrastructure has been absolutely destroyed. Aid is needed urgently to prevent famine and disease from spiralling out of control.

Activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are setting out to do what governments have so far failed to do, namely, to break the illegal siege on Gaza and deliver aid directly to the people who so desperately need it. They have set out from Istanbul carrying 5,500 tonnes of aid, and over 1,000 doctors, lawyers and other volunteers intend to provide care and support for the Palestinian people. They are unarmed and totally defenceless. This is an act of extraordinary courage given that Israel has violently detained any groups, activists or aid workers who have attempted to defy its genocidal, colonial siege of Gaza. In 2010, the Israelis murdered ten activists who sought to reach Gaza. If Israel will not facilitate the entry of adequate levels of aid and set out a clear timeline for the end of its occupation, the international community needs to intervene and start making its own deliveries of aid directly. I would like the Leader to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to come to the House to update us on what Ireland is doing for the people of Gaza.