Tanaiste forced to seek shelter as air raid siren rings out during Israel visit

Mr Martin did not have to leave his vehicle when the siren went off as his car was reinforced.

However, his team who were travelling in an accompanying bus did have to leave their vehicle and enter a bunker nearby as is the local protocol.

The delegation included Irish Ambassador to Israel Sonya McGuinness along with Mr Martin’s political staff and Department of Foreign Affairs officials.

The air raid siren rang out when Mr Martin was travelling from Southern Israel to Jerusalem as part of a State visit to the country.

The group returned to the bus shortly after the alert and resumed their journey to Jerusalem before driving to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Air raid sirens are a regular event in Israel even before the war in Gaza that followed the Hamas terrorist attack on October 8.

Micheál Martin meets the Mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi

Earlier, Tánaiste Micheál Martin visited the Kibbutz in Southern Israel where kidnapped eight-year-old Emily Hand was living before she was abducted by Hamas.

On the second day of his visit to the Middle East, Mr Martin visited the region devastated by the Hamas terror attack on October 7 and met with Israelis traumatised by the violence.

The Fianna Fáil leader’s first stop was in the town of Sderot where 45 people were killed by Hamas when they invaded the region bordering the Gaza strip.

Among those murdered was a bus of elderly Israelis who were travelling to the Red Sea for a holiday but were forced to stop in the town when their vehicle got a puncture, while a mother was also shot dead in front of her children.

The local police station was levelled by the Israeli Defence Forces following a gun battle with the terrorists who had held members of the force hostage.

Mr Martin was shown around the town by the director of the of the International Resilience Centre Ayelet Shumel and was also joined by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

“There was a battlefield in the middle of Sderot. Just thinking about it is crazy. People here were witnessing a battlefield. We had bodies all over. The death toll was 45 people and when you think about it, a city that suffered 70 active shooters that’s not bad, but it is awful,” Ms Shumel said.

“We had a minibus with 13 people, some of them were Holocaust survivors who decided to go and spend the day at the Dead Sea and they stopped in the road because they had a flat tyre. They had a flat tyre. The driver was working on it,” she said.

“And then there were sirens so they had to go into the bomb shelter.

"Well, the bomb shelter didn't open. There was a technical issue. It didn't open. Terrorists came and they killed all of them. There were 13 dead bodies right next to a bomb shelter,” she said.

Mr Martin was also brought to the home of local business owner Haim Peretz whose house was destroyed by a Hamas rocket.

Mr Cohen next organised a meeting between the Tánaiste and Mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi who was critical of Ireland’s stance on the conflict.

During a tense engagement, Mr Davidi told how his seven children aged between 12 and 25 have endured bombings all their life and questioned the Tánaiste robustly on Ireland’s calls for ceasefire in Israel’s war on Hamas.

“We must finish the job, if you stop us, they will destroy us and you and everyone,” he said. He said he was “begging” Ireland to support Israel in their on-going war on the terror group.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has told the Mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi he is concerned about the radicalisation of future generations.

He told Mr Davidi a military solution alone will not work and “our sense is that you will radicalise the opinion of future generations even more.

"We worry about innocent children in Gaza who are not part of Hamas but who are getting killed right now,” he said, during his visit to Israel.

Mr Davidi told the Tánaiste it is Hamas that is destroying Gaza.

“When you see the picture outside, it seems that Israel are the bad guy and Gaza and Hamas are the people that want to free Palestinians, free Gaza. They destroyed Gaza, they destroyed the future of the people of Gaza.

"I’m begging you and I ask you to support Israel. I’m a strong guy. I don’t ask for money, “ he said. He said Israel moves against Hamas and ISIS, not civilians.

Mr Martin offered assurances that Ireland does not support any idea that Hamas can undermine the Israeli state. He said the death of Irish-Israeli woman Kim Damti in the October 7 attack “brought it home” to people in Ireland.

“There’s a young Irish child, a dual citizen, that is a hostage, Emily Hand, in Gaza right now. The idea that small children, she has no next of kin in Gaza, the idea that small children are held hostage is just an unconscionable act.

"That is a trauma of an enormity on a child that is inhumane, beyond inhumane,” he said.

He spoke about the violent history of Ireland, highlighting the “horrendous acts committed” over the 30 years of the Troubles.

Mr Martin was finally brought to the Be’eri Kibbutz where 110 people were killed and 70 are still missing. The Tánaiste walked through the ruins of houses which were ransacked and torched by Hamas terrorists after coming over the border from Gaza. He saw the devastation in the homes and spoke to one local man who survived the invasion.

While he was shown around the Kibbutz by Israel Defence Force Major Libby Weiss, Israeli bombs could be heard and seen dropping on Gaza less than 5km away.