This week, we have seen the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsen further. After a brief glimmer of hope last week with the humanitarian pauses, we have seen absolute devastation wreaked across the Gaza Strip, with reports of 16,000 people killed, including thousands of children. Gazans are facing a deepening horror, the UN tells us, as disease spreads, food is scarce and humanitarian aid is all but cut off. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the situation is apocalyptic. His colleagues have described the situation as the remnants of a nation being driven into a pocket in the south. UN officials have been told to empty warehouses of goods and move on. Where to go? There is nowhere to go for people in Gaza.

Nearly all of us in the House condemned the brutal attack by Hamas when it was carried out on 7 October. Nothing excuses Israel's brutal retaliation, bombardment and carpet bombing of Gaza. Israel's breach of international law and resultant commission of war crimes have effectively turned Gaza into a city of ruin. That was what Netanyahu threatened on 7 October. That threat has now been realised, with unthinkable consequences for many civilians who have been forced to leave their homes and see their friends, family and children killed. They have seen buildings and infrastructure turned into rubble. Hospitals and UN facilities have been targeted. There is seemingly no end in sight, two months on from the onset of the most recent war.

While many of us have been proud of Ireland's strong stance in support of Palestinian rights and support the Government on that, we now urge the Government to do more because it can do more. We are all continuing to receive correspondence from people across the country who want the Government to do more and are urging a stronger stance at international level, and here in Ireland, from the Government. We want a stronger response from Ireland, pushing at EU level, to ensure other EU member states can be brought on board to seek the crucial goal of a permanent humanitarian ceasefire.

Will the Taoiseach update the House on his Government's response to what are now genocidal policies being conducted by Netanyahu and his government? Will he tell us how he is going to work at European Council next week to ensure that pressure is brought to bear on his colleagues? I am conscious that Fine Gael is a member of the European People's Party, the largest grouping in the European Parliament. The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is drawn from the European People's Party. We know that at the European Council next week, EU leaders are to discuss the situation in the Middle East. What will the Taoiseach do at EU level to push for a ceasefire and put pressure on Netanyahu's government to ensure that we see an end to this horrific toll on civilians in Gaza?

Once again, for the avoidance of doubt - not in this House but perhaps in other parts of the world - I want to condemn unreservedly the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel where 2,000 people were killed, were tortured. We know now that many women were raped and others were kidnapped and taken hostage, and remain as hostages in Gaza today. While Israel has a right to defend itself, what it has done goes well beyond that in my view and that of the Government. Israel is allowing a situation to develop whereby 100 children a day are being killed in Gaza. That is unbearable and unacceptable, and we deplore and condemn it.

As a Government, we seek a new ceasefire so that the killing ends, so that we can get aid and relief into the Gaza Strip to relieve the suffering of the people there, and so that a new government, or at least a new administration, can be put in place in Gaza that does not involve Hamas and can be one that can become the basis for a lasting peace. That is what we are seeking at EU level, at UN level and in our engagements with other countries in the Middle East, making it very clear there can be no expulsion of populations, either from the West Bank or Gaza, that there can be no reoccupation, that there can be no further loss of territory and that there can be no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza. That is the position we are advocating. We will do it at EU level, at UN level and in our contacts with other countries in the region.

Specifically, the Tánaiste begins a three-day visit to the Middle East today. He will travel to Saudi Arabia today, then onward to COP in Dubai, and he will use these visits as an important opportunity to engage with key actors in respect of the devastating war between Israel and Hamas, in which so many innocent lives have been lost. I will use my role as Taoiseach at the European Council next week to press for the European Union to adopt wording calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and calling for the European Union, in particular, to take a much more active role in pushing for a two-state solution and Palestinian statehood, because the European Union has been far too passive for far too long when it comes to this conflict.

I agree with the Taoiseach; the EU has been far too passive. I am glad to hear the Taoiseach has confirmed he will be pressing at EU level next week for a text that will call for a permanent ceasefire and that will press for the two-state solution. His Government can do more, however, here at home as well. Senator Black's occupied territories Bill received cross-party support in the Seanad and, indeed, here in the Dáil, where Fianna Fáil and the Green Party supported it previously. Will the Taoiseach act now to bring that Bill through finally into law? He would have our support and, I think, support across the Opposition for that.

Will he also recognise Palestinian statehood? He made the commitment in the programme for Government: “Honour our commitment to recognise the State of Palestine as part of a lasting settlement of the conflict.” Is not now the time to take this brave and bold action, unilaterally, yes, but as a strong voice for peace within the EU and to take a strong stance, as we did to end South Africa's brutal apartheid regime? We can do more domestically, as well as doing more at international level, to press our EU partners to look for a permanent ceasefire. We can do more to impose trade sanctions on Israel, to pass the occupied territories Bill and to recognise Palestinian statehood.

The advice we have from consistent Attorneys General, and it remains the advice to the Government, is that the occupied territories Bill cannot be enacted by the Dáil because trade is an EU competence and that is clear in the EU treaties. Even it were enacted, it could not have a practical effect, and that has been the view of three or four Attorneys General from all sorts of backgrounds over previous Governments.

The Government favours the recognition of the state of Palestine. This House and the Seanad have passed motions to that effect. We do not believe the best way to do it is unilaterally. That would be dismissed, it would be ineffectual and we would be seen as an outlier acting unilaterally at a European level. We would like to do it as part of a group of European countries, and that would be a more significant statement. We do not just want it to be a statement. We want it to be part, perhaps, of an agreement to end the violence that is happening at the moment and to put in place a new administration in Gaza for the day afterward. That is the kind of conversation we are having at the moment, for example, with Spain, which has a similar view to ours, and some other countries as well.