Targeting civilian infrastructure as unacceptable in Gaza as in Ukraine, says Varadkar

Targeting civilian infrastructure in Gaza is unacceptable, just as it is unacceptable for Russia to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Solidarity with Israel from other parts of the world will “evaporate very quickly” if its response in Gaza and elsewhere is disproportionate and there must be “restraint”, he said.

The Fine Gael leader told the Dáil on Wednesday that Irish and EU aid would continue to Palestine and that he would not support its suspension “provided the money goes to the Palestinian people and not to Hamas”.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Mr Varadkar said he wanted to reiterate Ireland’s “total condemnation” of the attack by Hamas and other militant groups on Israel.

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The Taoiseach said in these circumstances Israel had the right to “defend itself” but that it was critical this was done within the parameters of international humanitarian law.

“Israel has united itself in response to these attacks and Israel is gaining a lot of solidarity from other parts of the world but I believe that will evaporate and evaporate very quickly, if the Israeli response in Gaza and elsewhere is disproportionate, so there must be restraint,” he said.

“There must be no attacks on civilian infrastructure. If it’s unacceptable for the president of Russia to target power stations and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, then the same must apply to the Israeli Government and the actions it takes on targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.”

Mr Varadkar said the Government’s position was that peace could only be brought to the region through a two-state solution but that was becoming “increasingly difficult with every day that passes, with every settlement that is built”.

“We still believe that the best solution, the only solution that will bring peace to the region is a two-state solution and that’s the outcome, which we support and we strongly support,” he said.

“There has to be a willingness on both sides for that to be the case.”

Mr Varadkar said he didn’t see such leadership in Palestine and that Hamas was “hell bent on the destruction of Israel, on wiping Israel off the face of the earth” and they must change that policy.

The Taoiseach also said that some of the discourse he had seen online “makes it feel like some sort of culture war; that you have to choose sides and you have to be either entirely on one side or on the other”.

“We all know the world is more complicated than that and wrongs have been committed on both sides,” he said.

In exchanges with People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, Mr Varadkar said that “you may well describe it [Israel] as an apartheid state ... you and I could live our lives freely in Israel”.

“Me as a gay man, you as revolutionary socialists. Neither of us would be able to live our lives freely in Gaza. We wouldn’t, because of the oppression that would be imposed on people like you and me,” he said.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she “unreservedly” condemned the attacks by Hamas on Israel and there was “no justification” for targeting civilians and taking them as hostages.

Ms McDonald said the strikes had occurred against the backdrop of decades of deep injustice and that Israel “brutalises the Palestinian people daily”.

“For decades, the Israeli State has breached international law through collective punishment, annexation, the confiscation of lands and the imposition of an apartheid regime,” she added.

“All the while the international community has at best looked the other way, at worst it has facilitated Israel’s breaches of international law, undermining the pathway and efforts to achieve the agreed two-state solution.”

The Dublin Central TD added that there needed to be “an all of Oireachtas approach” in calling for a retreat “from this terrifying precipice”.