Varadkar hopeful that Hamas hostage Emily Hand (9) will be released soon

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed hope that Israeli-Irish national Emily Hand (9) will be released shortly and that if there can be a ceasefire for four days, “maybe there can be a ceasefire for a longer period”.

Emily, who turned nine last week, was seized from kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th when 3,000 gunmen from Gaza crossed the border into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and taking almost 240 into captivity.

Under an agreement endorsed by the Israeli cabinet in the early hours of Wednesday, a four-day ceasefire will go into effect on Friday.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Varadkar said Emily’s family were in his thoughts. “I can’t imagine what a traumatic experience that is being held captive in a tunnel away from your family.”

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He said the ceasefire would provide a breathing space for humanitarian aid. There was no military solution to the Israel-Palestine issue, the Taoiseach added. “There’s no way that one side can defeat the other militarily, notwithstanding Israel’s extraordinary military power.”

Mr Varadkar said he thought the European Union’s policy towards Israel-Palestine had been “very passive” when it comes to Israel.

“We generally trade with Israel and engage with Israel as though it were a normal western European democracy that wasn’t occupying part of somebody else’s country.

“And when it comes to Palestine and the PA [Palestinian Authority] and even Hamas and the Gaza Strip, we’re the major donor, the body that’s pumping in a huge amount of money. And we haven’t really asked for Palestine to hold elections. We haven’t really pressed them on issues around human rights. We could do more to press them to combat terrorism and the growth of militant groups,” he said.

“But it has been partly because Europe is divided on the question of Israel-Palestine. It’s been a passive approach, and I don’t think that’s sustainable.”

The Taoiseach said calls for unilateral action against Israel were a bad idea and that any action needed to be multilateral. Such calls were coming from people with no experience of foreign policy or how diplomacy worked, he added.

“Sanctions only work if they do more harm to the country being sanctioned than the country that’s imposing the sanctions. ... If one country acts on its own, as in effect of the country being sanctions isn’t affected much, they don’t really care. And you actually end up doing harm sometimes to your own country because then you can become the victim of a counter-boycott.”

“We know, for example, in the US there are people who will counter boycott anyone who boycotts Israel. Do we really want to get into that space, particularly when it wouldn’t help Palestinians at all?” Mr Varadkar said.