Why Ireland's leaders are willing to be tougher on Israel than most

Like other European countries, Ireland is watching in horror as thousands of people are killed in Gaza, knowing that among them are likely to be some of its own citizens.

One particularly shocking case stands out: that of Emily Hand, an eight-year-old girl who was thought to have been killed by Hamas terrorists at a kibbutz during the massacre on 7 October. 

Her father was initially informed of her likely death, but DNA tests have indicated her body was not among the remains recovered from the kibbutz. 

She is now thought to be alive and held hostage in Gaza, providing the Irish government with an imperative to secure her release - if at all possible - requiring intense diplomatic work as fighting rages in Gaza. 

But at home in Ireland, Hand's case is part of a complicated political reality. While many European governments have hesitated to condemn Israel's bombardment of Gaza – if they have criticised it at all – many Irish leaders have taken a noticeably tougher tone.

The Irish Taoiseach (prime minister), Leo Varadkar, has repeatedly condemned the Hamas massacre of 1,400 people in Israel, but has also said that Israel's response in Gaza resembles "something more approaching revenge".

At an international aid conference for Gaza hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday, Varadkar said that failure to observe humanitarian law "can’t be inconsequential".

Ireland's President Michael D Higgins, meanwhile, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu's government of nothing less than undermining international human rights norms.

"To announce in advance that you will break international law and to do so on an innocent population, it reduces all the code that was there from Second World War on protection of civilians and it