As Israel continues to lay waste to Gaza and its medical infrastructure, there are 50,000 pregnant women who cannot access basic health services and proper care. Now, Al-Awda Hospital, the only hospital in northern Gaza left providing maternity services, will shut down as fuel runs out. The trauma and the horror experienced by Gazan women is the stuff of nightmares. It is a living nightmare. Women are undergoing Caesarian sections without anaesthesia. Emergency sections are being performed on dying pregnant women hit by Israeli airstrikes. Doctors perform maternity procedures often under the light of a cellphone, without access to clean water to wash their hands or antibiotics to prevent infection.

Israel's bombardment is not defence. This is vicious revenge. We are witnessing war crimes and Israel must be held accountable for its actions. An unequivocal ceasefire is needed now. We agree on that. Can the Taoiseach set out the sanctions the State is prepared to take against Israel to hold it to account?

We agree that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is required. The killing has to stop. Hostages need to be released. Citizens of other countries need to be allowed to leave and we need to make sure that we get humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible. The Government is not proposing any specific sanctions at this point. We know when sanctions work. Sanctions work when they are done on a multilateral basis. Sanctions done unilaterally generally do more harm to the person imposing the sanctions than the entity on which they are imposed. Sanctions should, therefore, only be carried out on a multilateral basis in my view.

Amid the unthinkable devastation and loss of life in Gaza, we are now hearing that more than 10,000 civilians, including 4,000 children, have been killed in the brutal Israeli bombardment. I thank the Taoiseach for his willingness to engage on that yesterday following my question on Opposition briefings. That would be very useful in the spirit of trying to achieve a cross-party approach from Irish legislators on the appalling situation in Gaza. I want to ask the Taoiseach about the situation for Irish citizens trapped in Gaza. We are hearing increasingly desperate pleas for help from those who currently see no way out with their families and who are not appearing on the lists of those who apparently are to be allowed to make the Rafah crossing. Can the Taoiseach brief us in any way on what more we can do at national and EU level to assist and support our own citizens in Gaza?

I also refer to the appalling situation for pregnant women and new mothers in Gaza, which Deputy McDonald raised.

I thank the Deputy.

The news from Al-Awda hospital in Gaza today is absolutely deeply distressing-----

I thank the Deputy.

-----and we need to know-----

I thank the Deputy; the time is up.

-----that at least pregnant women and women about to give birth-----

The time is up, Deputy, please.

-----to new babies will be allowed out.

There are an estimated 8,000 foreign and dual nationals and immediate dependants in Gaza who are seeking to leave. Evacuations are being managed on a country-by-country basis and it will take time for this process to be completed. The names of all Irish citizens in Gaza who have asked to be included on the list of those to be evacuated have been submitted to the relevant authorities. We do not know when they will be able to leave. There will be no evacuations of foreign nationals from Gaza over the weekend. Our embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv are in regular communication with the authorities in Egypt and Israel in this regard.