Micheál Martin’s day began at the scene of a shoot-out at Sderot, a southern Israeli town near the Gaza Strip. This sun-drenched place should be home to 36,000 people. But it is deserted these days, evacuated after the Hamas assault of October 7th that left 1,200 Israelis dead, 45 of them in Sderot.
Ayelet Shmue, director of a local “resilience” centre where the community responds to attacks, told the Tánaiste how Israeli forces bulldozed the police station to kill Hamas militants who occupied it during the fateful attack. “We’re not trying to be the big mean Israelis, we’re fighting for our lives here,” she said.
It was a message Martin heard again, again and again. Israel is a country at war, the Gaza bombardment visible on the horizon in huge plumes of grey smoke and audible as fighter jets scream overheard. More than 11,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave, and many thousands more injured. The crowded territory, half the size of Co Louth, is home to 2.1 million people.
Under close supervision from heavily armed military, Martin went next to view the home of Haim Peretz, a grandfather and garage owner. There he saw how a Hamas rocket blasted through Mr Peretz’s roof, blowing a gaping hole in the parlour ceiling. In a place that sees itself under existential threat from a hated enemy, the signs of violence are everywhere.
Martin next met the mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi, and Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen, in the town hall. In a tiny conference room with 22 people crowded around the table and others standing, Davidi asked “they come to support?” at the outset, before launching into a tirade against Hamas and pleading for Ireland to back Israel’s war.
“I am begging you and I ask you to support Israel,” Davidi said. “I am a strong guy. I’m not asking money. I’m not asking you to help us.”
Davidi is a father of seven between the ages of 12 and 25, who, he said, do not know normal life because of the constant threat of attack. Not for him talk of a ceasefire or moves towards a political settlement with the Palestinians. “The first thing we need is to finish with Hamas because Hamas don’t want the violence to stop,” he said.
“If Israel can finish the job, destroy Hamas and Isis, I think that we can change the future. Without that, nothing will change.”
Directly facing him was the Tánaiste, who cited three decades of violence in the Northern conflict in his call for a humanitarian cessation of violence. Davidi’s withering response was to suggest Ireland provide a home to Hamas and its arms but Martin was undeterred. “I do not believe that a military solution on its own will resolve or create an environment for future generations. I genuinely do not believe that,” he said to the mayor.
“We may have to disagree on that and I respect where you’re coming from. Our sense is that there’s a real danger that you will radicalise the opinion of future generations even more.”
In his next stop, however, Martin saw with his own eyes evidence of the terror that has so inflamed the Israelis.
Yards from the Gaza frontier, the Be’eri kibbutz is the communal settlement where Israeli-Irish girl Emily Hand was taken hostage on October 7th. More than 100 from the rural community were killed that day – greater than 10 per cent of the local population – and Emily Hand was among 30 who were kidnapped.
Martin was taken into several burnt-out homes, a hint of acrid smoke still in the air after lives abruptly taken. Remnants of shattered domestic life: an empty rocking chair, an upturned microwave oven, a trampled-on computer keyboard, a bottle of rosé wine with the cork half-shut, the noisy crunch underfoot of cracked roof tiles. Standing by a wrecked staircase, Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich was moved to tears.
The Tánaiste was shown around by Libby Weiss, a major in the Israeli defence forces. “Devastation, they’ve gone through a nightmare,” she said of the survivors.
Martin was “deeply saddened” by the scenes. “There was a football in the ditch, kids playing, people having their daily meals, and suddenly this savage attack,” he said. “I was shown photographs of mutilated bodies, people killed and it is horrific what happened. As a human being I can’t comprehend that type of inhumanity.”
On the way to Jerusalem, the Tánaiste’s team was forced to make an emergency stop because of a bomb scare. When air raid sirens went off, officials had to disembark from their bus and lie on the road. Martin remained in his armoured car. “We followed protocol,” he said. No one was injured.
Having made the case for a stoppage of violence with Cohen and others, the Tánaiste saw no sign of a breakthrough.
“I get the sense this morning that Israel wants to believe that it can eliminate Hamas militarily. We don’t share that view,” he said.
“There has to be a political horizon at the end of the day in terms of how you resolve the overall situation in the region. But it seems to me from what I’m hearing, unfortunately, that there is a determination to keep going with the military campaign.”
Martin travelled north in the afternoon to the hilly streets of Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. This territory, the size of Co Galway, is home to 3 million people. The Israelis sealed the frontier since October 7th, meaning 160,000 Palestinians who commute to work in Israel can’t do their jobs. Israel has been carrying out raids by day and night in the West Bank – as many as 16 daily – to root out militant suspects.
Martin met the Palestinian Authority foreign minister Dr Riyad al-Malki and the prime minister Dr Mohammed Schtayyeh. “I expressed my sympathies to them in respect of the enormous loss of life of Palestinian people in Gaza, women and children and innocent civilians. We also spoke about the need for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza and for a humanitarian ceasefire,” he said.
“We spoke at length about a political horizon, how the EU could be involved, what international dimension could be involved in terms of the situation after this war ends and, please God, it will end very soon. So there were interesting, beginning embryonic discussions on that.”
For the moment, though, the campaign against Hamas is Israel’s focus. After positive news on Cairo a day earlier when 23 Irish citizens left Gaza, Martin’s visit to Israel and the West Bank was a blunt reminder of the fatal realities of war. Asked whether he saw any prospect of bringing the current cycle of violence to a halt, he said: “Not just yet.”
