Release of Israeli hostages by Hamas: MLAs in Northern Ireland assembly clash over giving Donald Trump credit
MLAs in the Assembly chamber have clashed over giving Donald Trump credit for achieving a peace deal in Gaza.
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said that "more than two years after Hamas started the conflict with the biggest massacre of Jews since the Second World War, the war is finally drawing to a conclusion".
He commended the work of Donald Trump in achieving the peace deal, while lambasting those in the chamber who "unjustly attacked" him – singling the First Minister out for "using Gaza as a pretext of skipping a state banquet held to mark his visit to the UK".
DUP MLA Paul Givan thanked Donald Trump for taking out Iran's nuclear facilities and praised Israel for decimating attacks on Houthis and Hezbollah.
He said that "the lands of Canaan were given to the people of Israel by God; It is the promised land surrounded by enemies - the only democracy in the Middle East".
But Alliance MLA Kate Nichol said it was possible to condemn both 7 October and the Israeli "genocide".
She added: "I maybe haven't read the Bible that recently, but what I learned from it was about love and about humility, not judging, and the importance of treating people with kindness and respect."
UUP MLA Steve Aiken said that for those MLAs who say there was "no alternative to terror, the reality is if October 7th hadn’t happened, many thousands, would still be alive".
He noted that the result of the war had been the decimation of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houtis and Iran's nuclear programme.
"Without President Trump this would not have occurred," he added.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said the actions of Hamas on 7 October were "appalling" but sounded concern that some MLAs "can't bring themselves" to acknowledge over 60,000 Palestinians were also killed.
He hit back that he was "not going to say thank you to Donald Trump" whom he described as "a force for destruction in the world."
Sinn Fein's Declan Kearney called for the creation of "a permanent peace process" in the region.
He said: "New phases of talks must address the root causes of Israel's illegal occupation and apartheid system in Palestine, the creation of a permanent peace process established within the framework of international law".