Israel's carpet bombing decimated Gaza's medical infrastructure, crippling the ability of Palestinians to help the injured, the sick and the dying. The destruction of hospitals is a direct violation of international law, a war crime, yet Israel believes it has the right to bomb hospitals. Last night, Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City was bombed. "Devastation", "carnage" and "a massacre" are just some of the words used by those who witnessed the devastation. Hundreds of innocent men, women and children have been reported dead, their lives wiped out in one horrific instant. Many more lie lost, buried beneath the rubble. This atrocity is made all the more harrowing because so many of those killed and wounded had fled their homes believing they were safe at a hospital, but they were wrong. Last night's bombing of Al-Ahli hospital demonstrates that nowhere is safe in Gaza. All the while, Israel's siege on Gaza continues and it intensifies a merciless military bombardment of an impoverished refugee population. We are now bearing witness to human catastrophe on an unimaginable scale.

So far, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed, a third of whom were children. Thousands more have been injured and an entire population has been displaced from their homes. The people of Gaza now face starvation as food runs out. Supplies of electricity, fuel and essential medicines are cut off as Israel continues its blockade. There is no clean water so the people of Gaza, desperate to survive, are drinking unsanitary water. Now the fear is that we will see an outbreak of cholera in Gaza. A disease such as cholera would rip through a war-torn, impoverished and malnourished population whose medical infrastructure has been obliterated, heaping nightmare upon nightmare. Gaza's children scavenge for supplies in the rubble of what were once their neighbourhoods, schools and playgrounds. Little kids on their bikes doing everything they can to help their mammies and daddies are traumatised by conflict and now stalked by disease. Níl an bhuamáil ar Gaza, atá á déanamh ag Iosrael, cosantach. Ionsaí ar dhaoine bochta atá ann. An bhfuil an Taoiseach chun iarraidh ar sos cogaidh? I said to the Taoiseach yesterday that Israel's actions are not defensive. Carpet bombing civilians is not defence.

Hear, hear.

Starving people is not defence. Impoverishing and displacing people are not defence. Destruction of their hospitals is not defence. This is in fact an all-out offensive assault on a refugee population trapped in the world's largest open-air prison. The leadership of the international community condemns, deplores and expresses outrage but does not shout "Stop". Humanity now demands we call for a full and immediate ceasefire. Stop the slaughter of the Palestinians. Stop the bombardment of Gaza. End the blockade and create space for a dialogue. The Taoiseach has described Israel's bombardment of Gaza as collective punishment. He said it is in breach of international law. Will he condemn these actions by Israel? Will he demand the one thing that can transform this awful situation - an immediate and full ceasefire?

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue which I think is on the minds of everyone in this House and everyone in the country. On behalf of the Government, I condemn unequivocally the bombing of the Anglican Al-Ahli hospital yesterday in Gaza. It was an atrocity. It violated the rules of war and violated basic humanity. It might yet prove to be a war crime but whatever has happened, the violence must stop and we stand in full solidarity with the people of Israel and Palestine who want the violence to stop, and there are many of them. We do not yet know the details or all the facts about the attack, whether it was deliberate or intentional, whether it was carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces, Palestinian Hamas or Islamic Jihad. We need an independent investigation if that is at all possible. What is certain, however, is that the Palestinian civilians here are the innocent victims. That is absolutely certain.

As a Government, we call for three things to happen immediately: for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to be observed by all parties to the conflict, and let me be clear about that; for Hamas to release its hostages and to do so immediately, without precondition, and to lay down its arms; and for Israel to turn back on the power and water and to allow humanitarian corridors to be created to relieve the extraordinary burden on the people of Palestine who are suffering today.

What is clear is that there is no military solution to this conflict. It has been going on for 75 years or more now. The only solution is peace, and a just peace. Caithimid sos cogaidh a fháil anois, ar gach taobh.

I welcome that call. We need ceasefires. We need peace. We need an end to the bombardment and the blockade, and the suffering inflicted mercilessly by Israel on the Gazan population. Let me just say to the Taoiseach what we do know. We know that Israel has bombed hospitals in Gaza before. It is a repeat offender in this regard. We know that Israel ordered the evacuation of hospitals. We know that Israeli spokespersons have defended the targeting of hospitals in urban settings. Above all else, we know that Israel has been allowed by the international community, time and again, to break international law. The Taoiseach has recognised those violations himself. I ask him now, on behalf of the Irish people and as Head of Government, to condemn the actions of the Israeli Government in this regard.

I support the Taoiseach's call for a ceasefire. That is where we must go - make no mistake about it - but equally we need to call out and condemn the actions of Israel. Will the Taoiseach do that?

We know from recent history and, indeed, the history of the past few decades that both the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas and Islamic Jihad are all capable of terrible atrocities. As a Government, we condemn them unreservedly and unequivocally. I want to be very clear about that.

As I have said, we call for three things to be done: an immediate ceasefire to be observed by all sides; Hamas to release the hostages; and Israel to turn the water and power back on and allow humanitarian corridors to be created.

The Deputy spoke eloquently about war crimes and I agree with her. I am glad to hear the Deputy speak so strongly about war crimes. Since independence, for 100 years now in Ireland, we in our millions have rejected terrorism and rejected those who attacked civilians, whether it was hospitals or shopping centres or restaurants. There is one thing I can say to the Deputy very clearly. For 100 years, we rejected terrorism here. We reject it there, now and always. People who commit war crimes should be brought to justice even if it takes 50 years. I hope the Deputy will concur with that sentiment.

We have all been watching the violence escalate in Israel and Gaza over the past 11 days with grave horror and distress, as civilian deaths have mounted.

Late last night, we learned with increasing horror that an air strike on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in besieged Gaza has killed many hundreds of people. An image which will stay with all of us is that of the press conference held by hospital staff surrounded by such appalling scenes of carnage. The Taoiseach has described it rightly as an atrocity and it clearly is only the latest in this awful conflict. They are still pulling bodies out of the rubble in that hospital and in the other residential areas of Gaza which have been under bombardment by Israel. I think all of us share the same human response of distress and grief to see this humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza unfolding before our eyes.

I listened to the Israeli ambassador’s response this morning which shamefully focused less on the human tragedy resulting from the attack on the hospital and more on the attribution of blame for the bombing of the hospital. Certainly, we believe, and I think the Taoiseach does too because the Tánaiste has said this, that there is now a need for an independent international investigation to be carried out into last night's attack on a hospital and that should be carried out by the International Criminal Court, which has accepted the mandate. The Tánaiste, as I say, has spoken in support of that.

What is undoubtedly the case is that even before last night’s attack, Israel had been committing horrific breaches of international law upon the people of Gaza. The bombardment of civilians and of civilian infrastructure, the siege and starvation tactics being deployed upon the people of Gaza and the forced evacuation of thousands into the south of this tiny open-air prison all amount to clear violations of international humanitarian law. Just as our legal framework at international level criminalises the barbaric acts of Hamas, which I have condemned, it also provides a clear framework which should be governing Israel's response. Any nation in any armed conflict, no matter what the provocation it claims, is bound in law to comply with internationally established laws of war, international laws and the Geneva Conventions. This much is evident: the besiegement and bombardment of civilians amount to clear breaches of those laws and those conventions.

There is no space for equivocation on this. I believe that Ireland and the Irish Government need to be at the forefront of calls, at EU and UN level, for Israel to respect international humanitarian law. We need to speak with a united voice on that. That is why we, in Labour, have put forward a series of amendments to the motion the Government has proposed. I want us to be sure that we can take those amendments, that we can debate this and create a united voice for peace across the floor of this House. Will the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste accept our amendments, which would unreservedly condemn the collective punishment and the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas in Gaza and which would call for not only a humanitarian pause but an immediate ceasefire? I heard the Taoiseach's response earlier and he and the Government have been strong on that too. We need to speak with that united voice to ensure that we see relief for the appalling conditions of the citizens of Gaza.

I thank the Deputy. I have not had a chance to see those amendments yet but I met the Tánaiste this morning and I know he is working on it. If we can agree an all-party motion on this matter, that would be beneficial and would send a very strong statement beyond this House to the people and to the world more widely, but it needs to be balanced. It needs, as the Deputy has done, to condemn Hamas, to recognise the atrocities that have been committed by it, as well as others.

I will point out, once again, we condemn without equivocation the attack on the hospital last night. We will do so at EU level and we will do so at UN level as well. It was an atrocity. It certainly violated the rules of war and, beyond rules, basic humanity that civilians in a hospital should ever be targeted by anyone in any conflict or any campaign of war or terror.

It might yet prove to be a war crime. That has yet to be determined. I agree that an independent international investigation is required if at all possible.

In terms of what we are calling for as a Government, clearly we are calling for three things to happen now: for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to be observed by all parties to the conflict; that Hamas should release the hostages it is holding and should do so without conditions; and that Israel should turn the power and the water back on to relieve the burden on Palestinian citizens living in Gaza and to allow the creation of humanitarian corridors. The possibility that people could run out of water in the next few days, that a largely medieval disease such as cholera could stalk Gaza again, is unthinkable and cannot be allowed to happen.

I thank the Taoiseach for the response.

The response of Ireland and the international community clearly matters. It is time for the international community to call stop.

While I agree with the three calls the Government has made, we need to do more. Ireland must do all we can, not only to bring about a ceasefire, to bring about, what the Taoiseach has described, the release of hostages and the restoring of power and of water to Gaza, but to ensure also that Israel is held accountable. I have already written to the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, seeking a stronger position from the EU on this. Today, I have also written to the US ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Ms Claire Cronin, because the Biden Administration should be pushing for an immediate ceasefire and for an end to the bombardment of Gaza and we should ensure that Israel is held accountable for breaches of international law.

Following Hamas's horrific attack, which I have condemned as so many of us have, many countries have been reluctant to remind Israel of its international law obligations but it is at this times when grief in Israel is so raw that it is all the more important that we see a calm, a compassionate and, above all, an internationally legal response to the calamity that was inflicted on the people of Israel. We need to ensure that this hideous calamity that we are seeing unfold now for the people of Gaza is not allowed to continue and that Ireland is a strong voice at international level pushing for that ceasefire, for that restoration of power and services to Gaza, but also to hold a nation like Israel accountable where it commits war crimes.

I thank the Deputy. We had a video-conference of the European Council - the 27 Heads of State and Government - yesterday. It was a good meeting. It built on the statement that was released by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on behalf of the European Council on Saturday, puts us in a better place as a European Union and is a more consistent approach. The European Union can have more influence acting together than any member state can on its own.

We agreed very clearly to condemn the terrorist actions by Hamas and to recognise Israel's right to defend itself but that has to be within the confines of international humanitarian law. We spoke about the need to de-escalate this conflict. It cannot be de-escalated without an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and that is something that we are calling for as a Government. We also agreed that there needed to be a humanitarian response to relieve the suffering of the people in Gaza and far from suspending aid, we agreed that we would treble aid to Gaza as a European Union. We also agreed that we would work with Egypt to try to open a humanitarian air corridor as soon as possible.