Irish emergency humanitarian assistance for Gaza to be delivered next week

Emergency shelter and food funded by Ireland will be delivered in Gaza next week, the deputy Irish premier has said.

Simon Harris made the announcement ahead of meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

They were expected to discuss the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages, the need for urgent increases in humanitarian assistance and how Ireland can assist, “and crucially a discussion around the reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza”, a spokesman for the Tanaiste said.

After the meeting, Mr Harris said a plan to reconstruct Gaza is needed.

In reference to a proposal by President Donald Trump for the United States to consider taking ownership of the Gaza Strip, the Fine Gael leader said any plan that involves this displacement of people from their land is “not viable”.

“Today I met with the Palestinian prime minister and the Egyptian foreign minister and the Jordanian foreign minister, amongst many European colleagues,” Mr Harris said.

“At that meeting, I took the opportunity to, of course, discuss the situation in the Middle East.

“I very much welcome the fact that the fragile ceasefire is still holding.

“It was looking very, very dubious in recent days, and thankfully, more hostages were released today, and we need to see hostages released and returned to their families.

“We also need to see a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, and I very much welcome the fact, and got quite a bit of a sense of it over the last day or two, the fact that there is active work going on by Arab nations, led by Egypt and Palestine, to prepare a proposal to reconstruct Gaza, but also to address issues in relation to governance and security.

“Because Hamas can have no role in the future of Palestine. They bring no hope, they bring no peace, they bring no security, and they offer no positive future to the people of Palestine.

“What I also said today, very clearly, was that we in Ireland are absolutely willing to do all that we can on the humanitarian side, and I’m delighted to confirm that this coming week we will see trucks with food supplies and emergency supplies arriving, funded by Ireland, with the help of our Jordanian colleagues.”

Mr Harris said Arab nations need to engage on rebuilding Gaza, adding: “Any plan that involves the displacement of people from their land is not a viable plan. So let’s be very clear in relation to that.

“The plans that Egypt and others are now working on, I think, do offer a real possibility of a way forward in terms of the reconstruction of Gaza, the governance of Gaza and the security of Gaza.

“The next step will be for Arab nations to engage on that, but I’ve been making the point to those nations, and indeed to European colleagues, that it’s important this becomes a global plan.

“It’s important that all nations, or certainly as many as possible, buy into this as the direction of travel.

“We have to make sure that absolutely hostages are released and that the cessation of violence continues but we also have to make sure we move towards the long-term solution here, which has to be in the space of reconstructing Gaza and has to be in the space of a two-state solution, where the people of Israel and the people of Palestine can live safely side by side.

“People of Israel have every right to live in peace and security; so too do the people of Palestine.

“We have to make sure from the most horrific, horrific humanitarian catastrophe, all of the death, all of the violence, all of the loss of life of Israeli people, of Palestinian people, the disproportionate loss of life of civilians.

“We have to make sure that from this comes a process that can bring peace, a lasting, sustainable peace, and I think the reconstruction of Gaza and a serious examination around governance, around how we move beyond Hamas and how we deal with security in the Middle East is really important.”