IRELAND IS ACTIVELY engaged with Jordan and other countries in planning aid air drops into Gaza, the Tánaiste has confirmed in the Dáil.

On Monday The Journal revealed that preparations were being made in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the military to arrange for Irish humanitarian assistance to be delivered by parachute to starving Gazan citizens. 

As Ireland does not possess a heavy lift cargo capability this would be done by placing the aid on the aircraft of another country. 

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, have carried out air drops into besieged Gaza. 

This morning in the Dáil Tánaiste and Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, in response to questions from Independent Deputy Cathal Berry, confirmed that the Government were actively examining the possibility. 

“We are actively exploring the possibility of contributing to this multinational effort. And Jordan in particular has been leading this in organising airdrops and I have spoken to [Jordan's] foreign minister [Ayman] Safadi on this.

“We’re actively engaged with Jordan. It’s not an issue at all of technical capacity or anything like that. Jordan obviously has a lot of experience interacting with the Israeli Government in terms of the airspace there and so on, and understand the issues that arise there.

“But we’re working in partnership with Jordan and we’re actively exploring that but what is important Deputy is that should not distract from Israel’s obligations,” he said. 

The Tánaiste stressed the preferable way for aid to enter Gaza is by road and he said it was critical that Israel opens the checkpoints to allow this to happen.

He said it was important that the air drops “not be used as an excuse” by Israel to keep the road access to Gaza for aid convoys closed. 

However Martin added that the air drops were “vital” in northern Gaza as the aid agencies were not able to operate in the area.  

In response to a query from Berry, the Tánaiste said that Ireland will, in the future, have a cargo capability to drop aid when it takes delivery of a new aircraft. 

“Considerations here are more on the political or the practical level in terms of working with the Jordanian government on the specifics of getting aid in and whatever we can do to get aid in through that route Ireland will pursue that support,” he added. 

Berry, who is a former Irish Special Forces army officer, suggested that Ireland should fly food out to Jordan so as to enable another nation to drop the aid into Gaza.

Martin also said that diplomatic efforts were being made by Ireland to get the European Union to act as a bloc and impose travel bans and asset freezes on occupiers in the West Bank.

He said that he has detected a change in “mood” among European countries and particularly to impose “sanctions on the violent and extreme settlers”. The Tánaiste said that only Hungarian Government of Viktor Orbán had objected. 

Martin added Ireland was going to impose travel bans and asset freezes on the settlers but that “one final effort” was needed to try and convince all countries in the EU to act in concert.

His view was that an asset freeze would be much more effective than a travel ban for “some of these individuals”. 

“[The settlers] Who are doing terrible things in the West Bank, in displacing Palestinian communities, and schools and so forth,” Martin added. 

With additional reporting from Christina Finn