I wish to talk about, and put on the record of the House, the situation that confronts the people of Gaza this morning. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, has assembled a force of 300,000 troops on the border with Gaza and Gaza is 360 sq. km. To put that in context, the United States invaded Iraq, a country the size of France, with just over 120,000 troops. Israel is proposing to saturate the Gaza Strip with 300,000 troops. That is 1,000 troops per sq. km. The consequences of this are clear to everybody. We have seen the consequences of their air strikes, which are not consistent with the laws of armed conflict and are contrary to the Geneva Conventions in that the Israeli military and air force have targeted civilian objects and civilian areas. They have not allowed for a safe evacuation corridor towards Rafah and Khan Younis. They have not provided the necessary reliefs as set out under the Geneva Conventions for pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled. We are also aware that since the bombardment of the Gaza Strip began, more than 100 children have been killed every day, including today.

Last night, the Israelis began their ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. It was an exercise in what is called reconnaissance by fire. If they persist with this they will bring Merkava tanks that have a 120 mm main armament, 155 mm artillery, and infantry carrying weapons that are designed for the conventional battlefield, with targets out to 800 m. They are going to use those weapons systems in and among a densely populated civilian environment of 2.2 million people. The consequences are predictable. They will result in mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe that is beyond comprehension at this stage.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has issued a warning today that all Irish citizens should leave Lebanon immediately. I assume that is because the Department anticipates Hezbollah's involvement in this war and that if and when Israel goes in on the ground Hezbollah will join this war. I have seen some analysis of Hezbollah in the Irish media which is completely incorrect. Hezbollah is more than able to take on the Israeli military in northern Israel. Hezbollah has had ten or 15 years since the collapse of Iraq and the rise of Tehran's influence through Baghdad, Damascus and right over to Sheik Nasrallah in Beirut. They have armed and equipped Hezbollah with tens of thousands of very sophisticated missiles and endless amounts of equipment. There is now a land corridor from Iran to Lebanon and they can support, resupply and reinforce Hezbollah without any interruption. That is why the Americans have placed aircraft carrier battle groups in the eastern Mediterranean to send a warning to Iran. We are on the precipice of a regional escalation and the potential for a global conflict.

Hamas is a salafist, fundamentalist, radicalist Sunni organisation. They are Islamist extremists. What they had designed in their genocidal attack on Israel is now taking place. They provoked this reaction from Israel which plays into their playbook. What Israel is about to do is a human catastrophe for Palestinians that is beyond comprehension but will also sow the seeds for the destruction of Israel itself. I ask the Government to please use our neutral, independent voice to try to bring about a ceasefire as soon as we can to pre-empt this catastrophe.

Finally, what is the plan for the hundreds of Irish troops who are serving in Lebanon, Syria and in Israel, with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization and the United Nationals Disengagement Observer Force in Syria? If this conflict escalates, as the Department of Foreign Affairs anticipates, the mandates for those missions will become completely and utterly meaningless and we must have a discussion here in this House. I ask that we invite the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs to talk to us about the plans for the hundreds of Irish troops who will find themselves in the eye of this storm and above all make a plea to stop the killing in Gaza. Stop the killing of innocent men, women and children.

I commend Senator Clonan on his contribution. I ask the Deputy Leader to invite the Tánaiste primarily to the report from the forum on neutrality. I know that a further report will be published by the forum.

Yesterday, in the Dáil, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence reiterated his concern about the triple lock, which ensures that any deployment of more than 12 Defence Forces personnel would require a UN mandate, approval by Government and a resolution of the Dáil. He also said, "we cannot ignore the deep and systemic challenges facing the UN Security Council," which leads me to wonder why the Security Council is only now an excuse to question the triple lock. The triple lock policy was developed when the Security Council was just as deadlocked, if not more, than it is now. What about the Cold War? What about the fact that only 13 peacekeeping missions were set up by the UN between 1948 and 1978, and none at all between 1979 and 1987? I know that the Tánaiste is not writing off UN peacekeeping and I know that the challenges are real in terms of escalating tensions among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. As Associate Professor, Katharina P. Coleman, and Professor Paul D. Williams point out in an article on peacekeeping that I read yesterday:

Peace operations are a highly resilient international institution for managing armed conflict. Their resilience derives from ... collective intentionality ... Peacekeeping will only become extinct if international actors decide that peacekeeping should no longer exist.

Uncertainty does surround the future of UN peacekeeping but it is precisely for that reason we need the triple lock. We give a huge legitimacy to UN peacekeeping missions and it gives our neutrality legitimacy as well as Ireland's independent foreign policy. Therefore, we must continue to advocate for a reform of the UN, including, as the Tánaiste said yesterday, the abolition of a veto of the five permanent members. If we remove the UN from the triple lock we will end up participating in EU-led or NATO-led missions and as such any mission would lack international legitimacy.

Again I quote from the article by Katharina P. Coleman, and Professor Paul D. Williams:

Peace operations have endured through considerable variation in terms of interest shown by states and they have resounded after periods of relative disinterest. The current period of challenge is not unprecedented. Indeed, the history of UN peace operations can be depicted as a series of retreats, reflections and renaissances. The current contraction is no more likely to be permanent than the previous one.

I, too, welcome the ladies to the Gallery and totally endorse the comments ofmy colleague, Senator O'Loughlin. It is great to have them here and we all want to see women more involved. The women with whom I am involved through politics and the people who work for me are absolutely fantastic people. They have lots of brains, lots of ideas and are twice as good as I am. I hope that our visitors enjoy their day.

I thoroughly agree with the comments made by Senator Clonan. We are all saddened again today by the pictures of Israeli and Palestinian children bloodied, maimed, crying and holding on to one another. The violence is sinful and the world of adults seems unable to act. It is a very dangerous situation from every aspect. As I said here last week, when you talk about the appalling attack by Hamas, the involvement of Hezbollah and then you look outside that, we now know, different from before, that Iran and Russia are right at the back of this. As Senator Clonan will understand better than most, when we were back in the days of Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Mr. Sharon when they were so close to power, we did not have involvement by dangerous people outside of that so I think we are now in a very difficult situation.

I also welcome this morning the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on farmers who have restricted herds due to TB on their farms. They will now be able to avail of online-only farm livestock options and the marts will be able to facilitate that. The reason that is so important to people with restricted herds is that before now they could sell only into certain private lots. Now they will have the online options and the marts will take that on. Farmers had thought that under the old system their livestock was undervalued, and they were probably right. This will probably give them a better price for their livestock and I think it will be very much welcomed by the farming community.

Finally, I am sure the Deputy Leader will join me in welcoming the fact that the Government seems to be moving very quickly to ban mobile phones in our schools, particularly our primary schools. Thanks be to God for clear, precise action on that. Adults should move ahead with it very quickly.

Yesterday, in the audiovisual room, NewsBrands Ireland and Local Ireland gave a presentation on their key asks in respect of the Defamation Act and issues around advertising. It was a packed room. There were perhaps more journalists than politicians in the room. That was a missed opportunity for the organisers in that, clearly, the target audience for their message was the politicians yet the room was full of journalists. It was good to meet them, however. I am very much a supporter of the local press and local media.

One example I will share with the House is that these two organisations had reviewed all the local papers - they monitor advertising in the national press and in the regionals, provincials and locals - and they could clearly demonstrate that the Constituency Commission's advertisements for the constituency boundary reviews for European and general elections did not feature in any of those local papers. They asked why that was the case. It is very important we engage with local people.

What I liked about the little leaflet the organisations provided was the section on their asks from us, the politicians, specifically a fair share of government advertising, a fair share of government supports, a fair deal for the big tech platforms and, finally, a fair regime for defamation. I might have a different view on defamation from theirs but I will make one ask of the Seanad through the Deputy Leader. I ask that we schedule a report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the defamation (amendment) Bill. The committee has completed that. At a time when we may have some time on the Seanad schedule, we should be discussing relevant legislation.

I am supportive in general of the asks of these two organisations. I believe in supporting the national press and the local, provincial and regional press and, therefore, my ask is that we schedule, as early as possible, a report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the defamation (amendment) Bill and have a broad discussion and debate on these issues in this House.