Sir, – Those who follow developments in the Middle East will notice one abysmal factor starkly unacknowledged in Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s statement “on the ceasefire and peace deal for Gaza”.

The Taoiseach cites three deliverables – “release of all Israeli hostages, the withdrawal of Israeli forces to agreed lines, and the entry of vital aid into Gaza”, but makes no mention of the thousands of Palestinians locked away by the Israeli state.

These include thousands, including children, from the Occupied West Bank, tried in Israeli military courts where the conviction rate approaches 100 per cent.

Hundreds are interned on secret charges and undisclosed evidence under the administrative detention system. Thousands from all walks of life have been taken from their neighbourhoods in the Gaza Strip, or seized at checkpoints, and imprisoned incommunicado in known torture sites.

The UN reports that at least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody over the past two years, in a system characterised by “systematic torture and other ill-treatment”.

It is beyond disturbing, not to mention problematic, that our Taoiseach would attempt to represent our nation’s position “on the ceasefire and peace deal for Gaza” without acknowledging the suffering of the thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli

detention.

Surely if our Taoiseach’s “thoughts today are with the people of Gaza, who have suffered so much”, he would have researched the draconian systems of incarceration?

Without acknowledging the Israeli state’s human rights abuses, how can world leaders such as our Taoiseach help “to achieve peace and to end human suffering”? – Yours, etc.

BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,

Donnybrook,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – If the peace in the Middle East holds, it will not have taken place because of the flotilla of little boats, but the work of Donald Trump’s administration. Whether we like it or not, should it hold, we owe him our gratitude.

The art of the deal seems to have been effective this time, but maybe we should hold off with any peace prizes until he deals with the Ukraine as he has promised from