DUP MP Carla Lockhart says for a party that shuns 'the politics of condemnation' Sinn Fein is extremely quick to condemn Israel

She also noted that the speech given by Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald at last week's ard fheis differed from the one provided to the media in one important respect: when it came to deliver the speech, Mrs McDonald added in a fiery call for Israel's ambassador to be expelled.

In the draft of the speech sent to media less than two hours before delivery last Saturday, Mrs McDonald had said: "Israel cannot be allowed to commit atrocities with impunity.

"The government says that Israel’s actions cannot be without consequences. I agree.

"That is why the Irish government should take the lead and refer Israel to the International Criminal Court."

And there she stopped.

But when it came to actually addressing the party, she added in the line: "...and send the Israeli ambassador home!"

This prompted wild cheers from the audience, some of whom got to their feet to applaud.

The party had been accused of sending mixed messages over the ambassador for weeks.

Defying some of its grassroots supporters, it had resisted calls for such an expulsion, even though it had supported them in previous years.

Then last week Mrs McDonald said that the ambassador's position was "untenable"... and yet it left an expulsion call out of a Sinn Fein motion in the Irish parliament on Tuesday condemning Israel.

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said: “Sinn Fein performed a massive u-turn to call for the Israeli Ambassador to be expelled from the Republic.

"For days Sinn Fein councillors were abstaining on motions and sitting on their hands at the instruction of the leadership not to support calls for the Ambassador to be expelled.

"Then, suddenly, at the Sinn Fein conference in Athlone last Saturday night the policy was changed at such breakneck speed, the version of Mary Lou’s speech distributed to press didn’t even include the updated policy.

"Sinn Fein MLAs, TDs and MPs for years have refused to engage 'in the politics of condemnation' about IRA atrocities but now almost every hour are taking to social media to condemn Israel.

"It goes to further prove Sinn Fein is a party of double standards.”

As for residents of Gaza, the dire humanitarian situation continues today.

The Gazan ministry of health stopped reporting on the death toll there several days ago; at that time it was just over 11,000, with another 3,640 people missing (including 1,770 children), presumably entombed in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

In addition, 25 hospitals are out of action, 70% of Gazans have fled their homes, and 41,000 homes have been destroyed.

There have been at least 53 Israeli military personnel killed.

The UN Refugee and Works Agency said today that nearly 830,000 people are now sheltering in 154 UN installations.

It says “the over-crowding is leading to significant spread of diseases, including acute respiratory illness and diarrhea”, that “on average, there is one shower unit for every 700 people”, with some refugees sharing roughly one toilet per 150 people.

Meanwhile overnight the IDF said: “Troops located a school in which Hamas terrorists were hiding and eliminated them. They confiscated multiple weapons found at the school.”

The also said they had found the body of a murdered teenage soldier, abducted on October 7, adjacent to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.