Rare public split appears to emerge in Sinn Fein as party top brass decline to back calls for expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Ireland

But Sinn Fein’s top brass – represented by Mary Lou McDonald and foreign affairs spokesman Matt Carthy – did not say that they backed the call, and the wording of an amendment which they moved made no mention of it.

On Tuesday, the party’s youth wing, Ogra Shinn Féin, had tweeted out: “It is time to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland.”

And on Wednesday, Chris Hazzard, a Sinn Fein MP and former infrastructure minister who has been especially outspoken about Israel-Palestine, tweeted out a graphic drawn up by Ogra Shinn Fein saying: "It's time to EXPEL the Israeli ambassador."

In an accompanying message, Mr Hazzard had said: “Israel is a pariah colonial-settler regime that has committed some of the most egregious war crimes in living memory. Today, tomorrow, forever Ireland stands with Palestine.”

That tweet was no longer visible on his timeline when the News Letter looked this morning.

Among the others to have reposted the Ogra Shinn Fein “expel the ambassador” tweet was Enda Fanning (@EFFanning), the party’s Dublin chairman.

The debate in the Dail began with a motion from the taniaste Micheal Martin, who said that Dail Eireann both “unreservedly condemns the brutal attack by Hamas in Israel on Saturday, 7th October last, indiscriminately, and systematically targeting civilians, and resulting in over 1,400 deaths,” and also “expresses its alarm and deep concern at the rising death toll and displacement of civilians and acute humanitarian needs in Gaza, with over 3,000 deaths to date, of whom 1,000 are children”.

Sinn Fein’s leader Mary Lou McDonald then tabled an amendment to add the following words:

“[The Dail] unreservedly condemns Israel's brutal assault on the civilian population of Gaza which has resulted in more than 3,000 deaths including over 1,000 children to date in breach of international law; condemns the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israel to the south of Wadi Gaza Line in clear breach of international humanitarian law; condemns the cutting off of water, fuel, food and medical supplies and the destruction of civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza which amounts to collective punishment, in contravention of international humanitarian law”.

There was no mention of expelling the ambassador or otherwise severing diplomatic ties.

• Israel-Gaza: Sammy Wilson says 'Irish government in the past have acted like Hamas - no wonder they are anti-Israeli now'

• Israel-Gaza: DUP MLA says 'from the river to the sea' chant should not be tolerated as UK Home Secretary signals need for a crackdown

The other Sinn Fein TDs who spoke – Padraig Mac Lochlainn, John Brady, Paul Donnelly, Imelda Munster, Mark Ward, Mairead Farrell, Eoin O Broin, Ruairi O Murchu, Pa Daly, Martin Browne, Denise Mitchell, Reada Cronin – also did not mention expulsion.

The exception was Chris Andrews, Sinn Fein TD for Dublin Bay South, who said: “Ireland needs to boycott, divest and sanction Israel [and] we must expel the Israeli ambassador and seek that the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu who is a war criminal.”

People Before Profit also made similar calls, with Dun Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett saying “we say expel the Israeli ambassador and impose sanctions on Israel,” Gino Kelly of Dublin Mid-West saying “expel the Israeli ambassador, which other countries have done,” and Cork North-Central’s Mick Barry saying: “The Israeli ambassador has been expelled from Colombia; the Israeli ambassador should be expelled from Ireland too.”

The News Letter has sought clarity from Sinn Fein on its position, and is awaiting a response.

The long-term aspiration of most mainstream western politicians, and of many Israelis and Arabs, has been a two-state solution: a sovereign Israeli state roughly within the country's 1967 borders, and a sovereign Palestinian state next to it.

In this vein, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (basically the old government of Palestine) agreed to recognise Israel in 1993.

Almost the whole world – with the exception of a number of Arab states, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Cuba – officially recognises Israel today.

Palestine meanwhile is recognised by 135 of the other 194 states in the world (including by Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and India) but not by the western powers: the USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, or Australia.

Ireland also does not recognise Palestine.

In 2014, the House of Commons voted by 274 to 12 to recognise Palestine as a state (with five DUP MPs being among the 12 who voted against), but this vote was not binding on the government.

According to the UN Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza was reporting 3,000 Palestinians killed, and Israeli sources were reporting 1,300 Israeli fatalities – though precise confirmations of numbers are proving impossible to obtain.