More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed. More than 2,000 Palestinian children are dead. More than 1,000 Palestinian women are dead. More than 15,000 Palestinians have been injured. Almost 2 million Palestinians have been displaced. This is the depressing toll of human suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza over the past two weeks.

The people of Ireland were rightly outraged and condemned the horrific attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas on 7 October. However, there is no justification for the onslaught being rained down on Gaza by Israel's military machine. Israel's bombardment is not defence. The killing of more than 2,000 innocent children is not defensive. We have all seen the pictures of inconsolable parents carrying the broken bodies of their dead children. We have seen the film of a heartbroken little girl crying out in search of her mama following an airstrike. We have seen the footage of a traumatised little boy covered in dust and debris asking a doctor, "Am I still alive?".

Gazan parents are writing names on their children's legs and abdomens so they can be identified after airstrikes. As a mother, I cannot imagine how it feels to write your child's name on their body while they are warm and breathing so that you might know them when they are cold and still. This is not defence; this is a massacre.

Hear, hear.

It is a brutally violent offensive military campaign. Hundreds of schools in Gaza have been destroyed. Its health infrastructure has been obliterated. The hospitals that remain functioning are quickly running out of fuel to keep generators going. As food runs out, the people of Gaza face starvation. As clean water runs out, they face the prospect of cholera. As they run out of the basics needed to survive, they are trapped with no way out. Now, Israel is assembling hundreds of thousands of troops and tanks on the border in preparation for a ground invasion for more destruction, more slaughter and more Palestinian children dead.

Caithfidh Iosrael stop a chur lena mharú in Gaza. Ní mór do cheannairí Eorpacha sos cogaidh iomlán láithreach a éileamh. The people of Gaza stand at the threshold of annihilation. Nobody can say they did not see. Nobody can say they did not hear. Nobody can say they did not know. This is happening in full sight of the world. Calling for a humanitarian pause is not good enough. Pausing the slaughter to facilitate aid into Gaza only to allow the slaughter to resume is a most perverse interpretation of humanitarianism and cannot be the international community's response. The only truly humanitarian action is a full and immediate ceasefire and then aid delivered to Gaza without the threat of attack.

Ireland can and must be to the fore in the context of the call in this regard, as agreed by the Dáil last week. At the meeting of the European Council on Thursday, will the Taoiseach tell European leaders that they must make the call for an unequivocal, full ceasefire? Will he tell them that they must demand that Israel stop its slaughter of the Palestinian people?

Hear, hear.

I will attend that meeting and I will do the best I can to persuade the European Union and the European Council to adopt a common position. It may not be possible for us to adopt a common position. We do not have a single foreign policy across the European Union. We all have our independent foreign policies, which is something I know that Deputy McDonald supports, but I will certainly do the best I can to persuade our colleagues in other European countries to agree a common European position.

I will not tell them. That is a very particular approach. The approach the Deputy might adopt as Taoiseach would be to attend the meeting, point the finger, tell people off and hold a press conference afterwards. That is not how you do this job. It is not how you get things done in international affairs. You have to build relationships, partnerships, alliances and develop colleagues and try to use your powers of persuasion. This is particularly the case for a small country like Ireland, which is not a major economic or political power. We use the power of persuasion, reputation and contacts. That is how we do things and how we achieve things.

In the past two weeks in Gaza, we have seen a dreadful expression of violence. It has not just been in Gaza but also in Israel, where 1,400 civilians, including Israeli citizens and citizens from other states, were killed. Let us not forget that one of our own citizens was killed by Hamas in Israel. Her family come from County Laois. Since then, terrible violence and aggression have been witnessed in Gaza, where more than 5,000 people have been killed, very many of them children. We have our own citizens there for whom we are particularly concerned. These include a young boy, whom the Deputy may have seen on television last night, who is there on an extended holiday with his family. We are very keen to see if we can get our passport holders out as quickly as possible.

We are calling for a de-escalation. There is no military solution to this conflict, which has been going on now for more than 75 years. We fear that what is happening will spread to other parts of the Middle East and, indeed, may express itself on the streets of Europe in terms of violent acts, particularly violent acts of Islamic terrorism. We have already seen two examples of that in Belgium and France. We are calling for a humanitarian ceasefire that will allow aid to get into the Gaza Strip and foreign passport holders and refugees to get out. We are calling for all sides to observe this ceasefire, and I hope we all agree on this. This is the view I will be taking to the European Council later in the week. We are also calling on Hamas to give up all of the hostages. It is not acceptable to take hostages. Hamas should return all of the hostages to their homes and lay down its arms. It is a terrorist organisation, not a state. Again, I hope the Deputy will agree with this call.

While we accept and agree that Israel has the right to defend itself and to go after Hamas, the way it does so matters. It has to do it only in accordance with international humanitarian law. That is important for Israel's future security and its international relations.

The Taoiseach's party has been in government for 12 years. He is in his second stint as Taoiseach. Obviously, one can only assume that he has used that time, as he has claimed, to build relationships. He might inform us about who our allies are on this question, what level of persuasion the Taoiseach has exercised and what work he has done outside the European Council to talk to European and international partners concerning the message of a full and complete ceasefire by all parties.

Let us remember that the Israeli onslaught is absolutely ferocious. This is one of the largest military machines in the world. The fact is that Israel is not exercising a right to defence within the boundaries of international law. The Taoiseach correctly identified collective punishment by Israel as a clear breach of international law. When he speaks to our European partners at the European Council, will he also share with them the view and the reality that Israel is acting outside international law?

The answer is, of course, not a military one; it is a political and diplomatic one. The Taoiseach may say that we are small and therefore ineffectual, but I say that Ireland-----

No, he never said that.

No.

He did not say that.

-----may be small but we can have a very, very big influence on this question.

We are small but we are far from ineffectual. We are a country that punches well above its weight in international relations. I did not say what the Deputy said: the misleader strikes again putting words in other people's mouths and stating things that are not true.

If the Deputy ever has the opportunity to attend a European Council meeting, whether as a Minister or perhaps even as Taoiseach, she will understand that there are 27 different member states and they all have their different perspectives. Our attitude to the conflict in Israel and Palestine is very much guided by our own historical experience but the Deputy needs to understand that people's attitudes in other countries might also be guided by their historical experience, particularly in relation to the events in the 1930s and 1940s, and you have to be sensitive to that and not pigheaded about it. It is important the way you conduct yourself in international affairs.

The Tánaiste and I have been extremely active on this with huge numbers of meetings and phone calls. We were instrumental in making sure the European Council statement issued last Sunday was balanced and was not one-sided. We were instrumental in that along with a number of other countries in the European Union. We do have friends and we do have allies. We build up those contacts and those relationships all of the time. Among our friends are the Palestinians, by the way. They would recognise that as do all the other Arab countries. My fear is the Deputy's approach if she was Taoiseach would not make friends but would make enemies in the European Union and make enemies with the United States of America. Our country would suffer as a result and the Palestinians would gain nothing.