The nightmare for the people in Gaza continues to worsen. For two years, they have been facing an Israeli genocide. More than 65,000 people have been killed, more than 20,000 children among them. Some 92% of homes have been destroyed or damaged. All the hospitals have been destroyed or damaged. Two hundred and fifty journalists have been murdered. Since March, famine has been deliberately created by Israel. Every single day, tens of people are gunned down while queuing for food. Gaza city is being invaded and people are being slaughtered. Al-Shifa Hospital, the last functioning hospital there, is now surrounded, with tanks 500 m away, all as part of a plan, consciously carried out, of ethnic cleansing.

All this horror could only be happening with the arms and money supplied by and the political support of the most powerful countries in the world. The US, Germany, Britain and many others are providing the weapons. Thousands of tonnes of these munitions have illegally gone through Irish airspace without the Irish Government doing a thing about it. In the face of this genocide, in the face of such complicity on the part of western governments, over 500 ordinary people have taken it upon themselves to try to sail to Gaza in order to break the siege and open a people's humanitarian corridor to provide aid and food to starving people.

What has been the reaction of the Israeli Government to this humanitarian initiative? It has been to label it a jihadist initiative, to refer to it as the Hamas flotilla and to call the participants terrorists. I spent two weeks in Tunis helping to prepare the flotilla. I assure the House that these are decent people from around the world who are looking to do whatever they can to try to stop the slaughter. The rhetoric being used was clearly designed to justify attacking the flotilla. On Tuesday night, 11 boats were attacked by drones, with explosive and incendiary devices and chemical substances inflicting physical damage. Yesterday, the flotilla received credible intelligence from multiple European governments that Israel is likely to escalate violent attacks on it within the next 48 hours, potentially using weapons that could sink boats and injure or kill participants.

The Tánaiste signed a joint statement on 16 September calling "on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the Flotilla" and saying, "any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the Flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability". A violent act has now taken place. As a result of the pressure exerted by the Italian workers who went on strike on Monday in support of Palestine, two naval ships have now been sent by the Italian Government to the flotilla.

Could you conclude, Deputy?

The Spanish state has also sent a vessel to help protect it. There are 22 Irish citizens on board, including Senator Chris Andrews, with Deputy Barry Heneghan due to join him. Their lives are in danger. What is the Government going to do to protect them? What accountability will there be?

You should conclude, Deputy Murphy, please.

Will the Government at the very least send a representative to join the legal observer boat to be a witness?

I thank the Deputy for raising, as Deputy Doherty did, a really important issue regarding the protection of citizens on international seas and the rule of law with regard to them. The Government, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste are keenly aware of this. What are we doing with regard to it? We are taking diplomatic action. We are raising this matter with other governments within the European Union and at the international gatherings happening in New York. I reiterate that the protection of international law must be afforded to those who are at sea at the moment and those who are on the flotilla. Regardless of the conditions they are in, they deserve the protection offered by international law. That is absolutely crucial. I do not have the first-hand experience Deputy Murphy has of the flotilla and seeing it prepare, but I have no doubt at all that those who are involved in it are motivated by a desire to send a signal regarding their human response to what is happening in Gaza and to play whatever role they can in offering practical support to the people confronting such terrible conditions.

As to what we have done, it is at a number of different levels. First, the Tánaiste, as I said earlier, has raised this issue with Vice President Kaja Kallas, who is the high representative of the European Union with regard to foreign policy, to make the case for the European Union having a collective response to this.

He also raised it at the meeting in the past number of days regarding the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in the context of the effort countries are still making for a two-state solution in the Middle East. The Department of foreign affairs, at a practical level, is doing all it can to provide consular assistance to our citizens who find themselves in such a difficult situation.

I am informed that our officials are in direct contact with a designated person in the Global Movement to Gaza delegation, which I understand is the organising group behind this flotilla. We will continue to maintain that contact and to raise this issue at the highest level we can, both diplomatically and politically.

I welcome the words of concern and support and the consular assistance being provided. Respectfully, I asked what are you going to do, not what are you going to say. This is a microcosm of the Government's position on Palestine in general whereby it is able to correctly say that what is happening is a genocide but the action does not necessarily follow. It is welcome that the matter is going to be raised at diplomatic levels and so on, but what are you going to do? There are Irish citizens who, as the Minister agrees, are doing their best to try to address and stop a humanitarian catastrophe and to bring baby formula and baby food to people in Gaza. They are in danger as a consequence. The Italian Government is sending two naval ships and the Spanish Government is sending one. I am not asking our Government to send a naval ship. Will it agree to send an observer who will not attempt to enter Gaza? The legal observer boat will stop before Gazan waters. Will the Government send an observer who will be present on a legal observer boat and who will be a witness and direct line of contact with it?

For a country with our long-standing tradition in the context of respect for human rights and our neutrality, diplomacy is the way we conduct our affairs. It is also the way we seek to influence the world and protect the rights of our citizens. Words are not powerless. Words are not an absence of action. Words do not represent a lack of effort. Words and diplomacy are the way we seek to make our case with the respect we have for international law and with our long-established values. Words are our means of action and our tool of influence. I reject and refute the case the Deputy makes that communication and contact are not the same as action or something that can yield a result. Through the diplomatic action we have taken, we have tried to play a role in influencing and building up a coalition of countries that have recently taken larger action with regard to the State of Palestine.

In relation to the proposal the Deputy put to me, I will raise it with the Department of foreign affairs to see if there is a role for an observer. Taking his concern at face value, which, of course, I do in light of the importance of this issue, I cannot immediately commit that an official can do this, but I certainly commit to following up on it. We are at one in wanting to ensure that any citizen involved in such a peaceful act gets the protection of international law.