How Ireland trades with Israel will have to change, Taoiseach says as he also holds hope for release of Emily Hand amid hostage talks

Ireland is going to have to change the way it trades with Israel, the Taoiseach has said in a major escalation of language over the Gaza conflict.

Leo Varadkar said: “I have said at European meetings, and I will say it again, that we cannot continue to aid Palestine and trade with Israel in the way we have done in the past.”

He added: “That is going to have to change in some way.”

It came after Mr Varadkar said Emily Hand could soon be free if Hamas prioritises children in the rumoured imminent release of hostages.

There are positive signals from both Hamas and Israel over an imminent hostage deal, as early as today.

“We are particularly pursuing the case of Emily Hand, a young Irish-Israeli girl who we believe has been held hostage in Gaza by Hamas,” Leo Varadkar told Mary Lou McDonald in the Dáil – notably criticising kidnapping and hostage-holding.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that if there is the release of some hostages by Hamas in the coming days, that children are the first of all those to be released,” the Taoiseach said.

“And we’re very strongly of the view that hostages should never be taken by anyone, in any conflict, anywhere, ever,” he told the main Opposition leader.

The taking of children as hostages is particularly wrong, he said. “We’re pushing, and using all our contacts and abilities, to ensure that if there is a hostage release in the coming days, that Emily Hand is a long one of those to be released. That’s a major priority for us,” Mr Varadkar said.

The leader of Hamas said on Tuesday that a truce agreement with Israel was close, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for good news soon about hostages, the most optimistic signals so far of a deal to pause fighting and free captives.

Hamas officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

Netanyahu said: “We are making progress. I don’t think it’s worth saying too much, not at even this moment, but I hope there will be good news soon”, according to remarks released by the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Netanyahu would convene his war cabinet from 1600 GMT “in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages”, his office said, followed by meetings of his wider security cabinet and the full cabinet.

A source briefed on the negotiations told Reuters the long-awaited agreement, which would see the first truce of the war and the first mass release of those held by both sides, was in its “final stages” and “closer than it has ever been”.

That was echoed by a U.S. official who said it was the “closest we’ve been” to a hostage deal.

The deal, as described by the first source, envisages the release of around 50 civilian hostages by Hamas and of female and minor-aged Palestinian detainees from Israeli custody, as well as a multi-day pause in fighting.

A Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for delivery of aid into Gaza and details of the exchange of captives. Both sides would free women and children, and details would be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Issat el Reshiq. Israel’s Channel 12 and Channel 13 TV stations both quoted unidentified officials as saying terms of a deal could be reached “within hours”.

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct. 7 rampage into Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met Qatari authorities.

The ICRC said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages, but as a neutral intermediary it was ready “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to”.

Speaking in the Dáil, the Taoiseach said he had a chance yesterday to speak with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, which has been in discussion with Hamas, and was due to meet with the ambassadors of some Arab and Muslim countries.

Ms McDonald, who again called for Israel to be referred to the International Criminal Court, said “all of us” were looking forward to Emily being back with her family soon, noting that she turned nine last Friday.

Mr Varadkar said: “We’re calling for the hostages to be released and we believe a ceasefire can facilitate that. We’re calling for the killing to stop and that’s why ceasefire must be adhered to by all sides, not just by Israel, but also by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other armed groups.” A ceasefire “can create the space, perhaps, to begin contacts about The Day After – about how Gaza is going to be returned to Palestinian control, and how it’s going to be managed in the weeks, months and years ahead,” he said.

The Government understands that there are some discussions and talks under way between intermediaries involving the release of hostages, Mr Varadkar said. The Tánaiste had been “very involved in contacts as well,” he said.

One Irish citizen had been killed thus far in this conflict. Kim Damti was killed by Hamas in Israel while attending a music festival, Mr Varadkar said. People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett commented that one word that was commonly on the lips of thousands of protesters in a march in Dublin last weekend in support of Palestinians was “genocide.”

“We have all the evidence we need that a genocide is under way,” yet the Government, Mr Boyd Barrett said, was doing nothing. He cited the Genocide Convention and the obligation of a state to do everything in its power to prevent it.

Mr Varadkar said: “I think what has happened to the Palestinian people for the past 75 years is shameful. It is appalling.” The Western world had let them down very badly, “and that is putting it mildly.”

He said he was not an expert on the term genocide, but his understanding was that it an attempt to “obliterate” a whole people, and that had certainly happened in the Shoah, or Holocaust.

Also on Tuesday, Irish aid groups have said that “only a trickle” of humanitarian aid is getting into Gaza, as they warned of the need for a ceasefire.

A charity representative also said that the first thing they do each day is check if their staff lived through the night.

The Israeli bombardment of and missile strikes on the Gaza Strip have led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the region, with food, water, fuel and medicines extremely limited.

The military operation was launched in response to an attack from Hamas militants, who killed 1,200 Israeli citizens and are thought to have kidnapped more than 200 others, including Irish-Israeli citizen Emily Hand.

Representatives of Dochas, Trocaire and Concern addressed Irish parliamentarians and senators on Tuesday during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.

As well as highlighting the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, they also raised concerns about other conflicts in the world and the need to respond to the conditions created by climate change.

Rosamond Bennett, chief executive of Christian Aid and chair of Dochas, said that of the 11,000 people killed in Gaza in recent weeks, 160 children are being killed every day.

She said that more children had been killed in Gaza since October 7 than in all wars around the world since 2012.

She added that she remembers being shocked at the amount of rubble in the Gaza Strip when she visited the enclave in 2013 and cannot imagine how it is now, or how it could be rebuilt.

Ms Bennett said it is “very difficult” to get public funding for humanitarian crises in Yemen, Syria, and Sudan as those conflicts are not raised as often in the media, meaning that government funding is crucial in these cases.

Dominic MacSorley, humanitarian ambassador at Concern Worldwide, who was speaking via videolink from the Chad border with Sudan, said that there was a need to move on from Ireland focusing on one international crisis at a time.

Finola Finnan, deputy chief executive of Trocaire, said that there was only a “trickle of aid” going into Gaza as there was only one crossing open – the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border.

She said there was very little aid going to the north of the region.

“Since October, we’ve had about 1,320 trucks have gone in, only 4% of the daily average volume prior to the current hostility, so there’s very little aid going in.

“At the moment, we’re waiting to scale up and we absolutely need a cessation of the bombardment on the population to be able to scale up to anything like we need.”

Ms Bennett added: “I was in Gaza in May, and the need is huge there. Even before this, about 80% of the population rely on humanitarian aid. And as Finola said, there are very few trucks going in compared to what there was previously.”

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