Martin Daly: Calls Gaza campaign 'war of devastation' and demands EU action

Minister, I'll start with the quote. What we're doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation, indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. It is the result of government policy, knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes. They're the words of Ehud Olmert, ex-Prime Minister of Israel. That devastation in Gaza defies human comprehension. Whole neighbourhoods flattened, hospitals reduced to rubble, the targeting of healthcare workers and journalists and famine. This is not the tragic by-product of war. It is a planned strategic assault on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and its attacks on Israel on October 7th were obscene. But no crime, however appalling, can justify what has followed. Collective punishment with bombings, shootings and the destruction of vital health and civilian infrastructure, resulting in famine and death, is unlawful and immoral. Since October 7th, more than 66,000 people have been killed and over 168,000 wounded in Gaza. That doesn't include many that are now dying, mainly children, due to preventable illness and starvation. Many thousands are unaccounted for, entombed beneath the rubble. These are not just statistics. They are families expunged, generations extinguished and people pushed to the existential margin. What we are witnessing is not proportionate. It is not humane and it is not compatible with international law. The destruction of Gaza, brick by brick, together with the relentless spread of illegal settlements in the West Bank, is obliterating the very possibility of a Palestinian state. Let us be clear, this is ethnic cleansing in all but name. This is not simply my view. We have heard from Ehuk Olmard and his view and he referred to concentration camps and war crimes. 600 of the highest ranking ex-military and security officials, including former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, Ex-Shin Bet chief Amy Ayalon and former Israeli deputy chief of the military, Matan Villeney, wrote to Donald Trump in August to intervene and ask him to end the war in August 2025. There is reported resistance, even within the Israeli army, to continue to prosecute this abomination. Ireland has not stood silent. Whilst we must not appear to be self-congratulatory in the face of this horror, Ireland was amongst the first to recognise Palestine as a state, joined South Africa in the International Court of Justice and has advocated consistently for a stronger international response to the EU and UN. Today, many others, from Spain and Slovenia to partners across Europe, are following that lead. But leadership is not a gesture, it is a responsibility. And futile gestures without consequences are meaningless. The EU must act, a full review of the EU-Israel trade agreement, real accountability for the breaches of international law and an unyielding insistence that humanitarian aid reaches those who need it. Yet the greatest obstacle remains Israel's own leadership. Prime Minister Netanyahu has not defended Israel, he has diminished it. In tandem with the egregious assault on Gaza, he and his extreme right-wing cabinet members have undermined a two-state solution by enabling and actively encouraging illegal settlements on the West Bank. He will not be remembered as a guardian of security, but as the architect of perpetual conflict, the man who extinguished the prospect of coexistence and condemned generations to bloodshed. And the new peace deal, the new proposed peace deal, is remarkable for the lack of Palestinian consultation, presented as a threat with obvious equivocation about the Palestinian statehood by Netanyahu, is an anemic strand of hope for a ceasefire, release of all hostages, humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of Gaza. Thank you.