I want to talk to the Taoiseach about his planned visit to the United States next week. The World Health Organization was unable to visit hospitals in Gaza in November, December, January and part of February. Only recently has it been able to restart its work in this regard. To date, it has discovered that 15 children starved to death in those hospitals. The United Nations tells us that 500,000 people in Gaza are just one step away from starvation. Hundreds of those people gathered in Gaza city last Thursday morning before dawn. As they moved towards aid trucks that were carrying flour, they were gunned down by Israeli soldiers. Some 115 people died and more than 700 were injured. It was a massacre. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, said that the majority were killed in a stampede and died under the wheels of the aid trucks, but UN observers who saw the dead bodies said that many of them were riddled with bullet holes. Where did the IDF get those guns and bullets? Many of them most likely came from the United States.

Between 7 October and Christmas Day, 230 cargo planes and 20 cargo ships full of weapons arrived in Israel from the US. Not satisfied with that, President Biden has included $14 billion worth of military aid for Israel in the package he is trying to get through the House of Representatives. This is nearly four times the amount of such aid the US sends Israel in an average year. While it is true that the Biden Administration is pushing for a six-week pause in the fighting, there is no question but that Biden has armed and financed a campaign that the International Court of Justice believes worthy of investigation as possible genocide. It is clear that a ground invasion of Rafah, probably the bloodiest event of the Israeli campaign, would be conducted in large measure with US weapons and financed to a significant degree by US cash.

In not much more than a week's time, the Taoiseach plans to get on a plane, travel to the US Capitol and join Joe Biden in a day of celebration. He plans to give the latter a bowl of shamrock on behalf of the Irish people. He plans to pose, no doubt, for photographs with a man who has armed and financed mass murder.

That is the truth of it. I believe that is wrong. I am confident in saying that large numbers of people on this island also think it is wrong.

More than 30 million people in the US claim Irish descent. Many of their ancestors fled the kind of famine conditions now beginning to appear in Gaza. This is an election year in the US. The Taoiseach has the opportunity to exert some real pressure here. He should tell Biden that there will be no shamrock while there is not a total ceasefire and an end to the bloody occupation. Sometimes you have to stand up and do the right thing. I would like the Taoiseach to address these issues, because this trip is now just over a week away.

I thank the Deputy. I take this opportunity to reiterate the Government's call for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This will allow the hostages to be released, the killing to stop and much-needed food and medicine to get into the Gaza Strip, where civilians are in a very desperate and unimaginable situation. We believe that a humanitarian ceasefire for a number of weeks can lead to a permanent ceasefire and to the resumption of talks on a final status solution.

I welcome the call made by US Vice President Kamala Harris earlier in the week for a humanitarian ceasefire to be observed by Israel and Hamas. This represents a welcome shift in the position of the US. I hope we will see this further elaborated on in the days and weeks ahead.

We are working closely with our European and Arab partners to build momentum for peace efforts. We hope that the ongoing intensive talks between the US, Israel, Qatar and Egypt will lead to a ceasefire. We firmly believe that a military escalation in Rafah, where almost 1.5 million people are sheltering in desperate conditions, would be catastrophic and should not happen. I share the Deputy's horror at the killing of civilians queueing up to access aid. It is important that there be a full, independent investigation and that those responsible be held to account. The UN report on the events of 7 October published in recent days confirmed that it is plausible that Hamas engaged in sexual violence and, indeed, gang rape as part of its attack on Israel. I hope that those who have not yet condemned Hamas for its actions on 7 October will take the opportunity to do so.

On my visit to the White House, which will occur next week, I do not believe in boycotts. That has never been the approach I have taken to international affairs. The visit will present an opportunity to speak to leaders in the US on Capitol Hill and also to President Biden and Vice President Harris. Ireland is one of 200 countries in the world. Not many countries are guaranteed a meeting once a year with the US. It would be a big mistake for us to boycott that and to lose the important engagement that has occurred every year since the 1980s. However, I will use the opportunity - in private, in the Oval Office and in public in the White House - to make clear how the Irish people feel about the situation in Gaza and how we believe the US needs to adopt an approach that will help to bring about a peace settlement in the region.

Before I ask my supplementary question, I will just say that the points I am going to make apply to the Taoiseach and the representatives of the Government. They also apply to all parties in this House, however. In our view, no party in this House should attend a celebration with Joe Biden while this Israeli terror campaign is being waged. That applies to Sinn Féin as much as it applies to Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

The Taoiseach mentioned Rafah, a place with a swelling population of 1.5 million people, a majority of whom are trying to survive in tents. There may be a six-week pause announced before the Taoiseach travels to the US, but there may not be. There could be an Israeli ground assault on Rafah. Is the Taoiseach seriously saying that if bombs are raining down from the sky on the people of Rafah in their tents and if the noise and fury of a ground invasion is taking place outside those tents, that he will go to Washington and present a bowl of shamrock on behalf of the Irish people to the man who is more responsible than anyone else on the planet for arming and financing the military force involved?

Is the Taoiseach seriously saying that? Would he not even for a moment reconsider his position on that?

The Deputy seems to be a little bit obsessed with the bowl of shamrock, which takes about 20 seconds. The real opportunity is in the sit-down meeting in the Oval Office with President Biden and his team. There is also the opportunity to speak publicly in the White House before guests of the President, as well as some from the Irish embassy. That is the opportunity I will take to reaffirm the importance of our relationship with the US on economic, political and cultural levels. I will also say there are issues on which we disagree, and I will take the opportunity to do so in private and in public. It would be a mistake for any Irish Government to boycott those events. Once that slot is lost, it would be easily transferred to another country, and it might never return again. We would diminish our influence in the world if we refused to meet people and refused to engage with them, including and particularly our allies and friends, such as the US.

Before I finish up, and I will not press the Deputy on this again, nor will I press him on this later during Taoiseach’s Questions, there are a small number of Deputies in this House who have not unequivocally condemned the Hamas attack on 7 October. I again invite the Deputy, in light of the UN report, which found evidence of sexual violence-----

Our position is clear, a Thaoisigh.

-----in Israeli prisons and evidence-----

It is clear.

-----of sexual violence against Israeli women on 7 October at the hands of Hamas, to condemn without equivocation the events of 7 October.

Hear, hear.

You know my position.