I want to echo the concerns about what is happening in Rafah. We have approximately 1.8 million Palestinians trapped in Rafah. It is their final place of refuge along a line between Kerem Shalom in Israel through Rafah out to the Mediterranean. Based on the reprehensible calculus used by Benjamin Netanyahu, it is likely, if this assault continues, that one in ten Palestinians will either have been killed or maimed during this operation. That is the literal and metaphorical decimation of a population. It is biblical in its savagery. It is bestial. The killing of children at this point is not unforeseen collateral damage, it is a deliberate and systematic tactic and strategy that is being used by the Israeli Defense Forces and by the Netanyahu-led Government. These are war crimes and I compliment the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste for their very firm line on this.

I am sorry, a Chathaoirligh, but I also want to bring up again the issue of children on surgical waiting lists on the watch of Children's Health Ireland, CHI. In the last two weeks I have been made aware by concerned parents that it is not just children awaiting complex spinal surgery who are left behind, but also children who require urological surgery. These are the same disabled children and we are in breach of our EU obligations to provide urological services to children and adolescents. That means children, young teenagers and adolescents at a very sensitive point in their development into young adults are having their urinary continence compromised, their faecal continence compromised and their sexual development, that is, the development of their sexual organs compromised by a lack of surgical intervention on their developmental pathway. This is absolutely scandalous. I do not have the words for it. Not only are they being crippled - permanently paralysed, with their limbs allowed to become deformed - but they also have to contend with this. I have no confidence in the board or the executive management team of Children's Health Ireland and on its watch we will see further children become unnecessarily disabled. Think about that aspect of a child's development and how it is being unnecessarily curtailed in this way. We will also see avoidable deaths on the watch of CHI. I want a debate on this matter. I will be submitting another Commencement matter and I hope that on this occasion the Minister or a Minister of State might attend or at least strive to attend.

Throughout 1995, thousands of Bosnian Muslims came from all over Bosnia to a small town called Srebrenica, where they were told they would be safe in a UN enclave in a war zone. In July 1995 the Serbian army overcame both the UN troops and the town and massacred 8,000 men. Despite increasing pressure on Israel from the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine, Israel has escalated the slaughter of innocent people over the weekend in Rafah. The bombardment of Rafah is eerily like the massacre that occurred in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War and we cannot allow that to become another stain on our humanity. Rafah was the only safe place left for Palestinians because Israel pushed them south, trapped them there and is now slaughtering them. It is a war crime to intentionally target an extremely densely populated area of civilians, including children who are starving, homeless and defenceless. There is no justification for this attack on Palestine and there never has been. Israel's goal is not one of self-defence and is not to eradicate Hamas; rather it is one of aggression. It is not to free the hostages. Israel's total aim is the annihilation and the eradication of millions of Palestinians who are in the Gaza Strip. The international community, like in 1995 with Srebrenica, is looking on and failing the people who are asking clearly for our help when Israel can bomb and execute a ground operation in Rafah as we have seen over the weekend.

Ireland has been a strong voice in favour of Palestine at EU and UN level, but we need to up the ante when it comes to that. We need to ensure there are peacekeepers in there on the ground who are stopping the bombardment we have seen. We must ensure the facilitation of aid and if necessary airdrop provisions to people. We need to use our relationship with the US - we can see it is beginning to change - to ask it to end its arms trading with Israel and stop providing financial assistance for what is a war machine. All eyes are now on Rafah and Palestinians are not target practice. Palestinians deserve justice and safety and the EU, UN, US and the international community need to step up now and take action to stop the mass slaughter of innocent civilians.