Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said 24 Irish citizens and dependents have been evacuated from Lebanon today.
It comes as Israel said it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanon overnight and was assessing the damage today after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group that Iran's Supreme Leader dismissed as counter-productive.
Mr Martin said the Irish citizens left on "flights operated by Ireland's international partners and they are expected to arrive in Ireland over the weekend".
"This close cooperation meant that Irish citizens, along with others from a number of countries, were able to depart Lebanon today. This is an excellent example of the importance of international cooperation," he added.
Mr Martin thanked the governments of The Netherlands and Canada for assisting with the evacuation.
He said almost all of those Irish citizens who want to leave have been assisted to do so. Others have decided to remain.
"We are in constant contact with all Irish citizens in Lebanon. Not all want to leave," Mr Martin said. "We will keep the situation under review.
"Essentially, all citizens who indicated a desire to leave Lebanon have been assisted to leave, but obviously the situation is fluid.
"Just to explain: many of the other citizens are there for quite a long time. They have deep roots in Lebanon and are not anxious to leave at this stage."
Mr Martin again called on the parties involved to de-escalate and to agree a ceasefire.
"The violence is shocking," he said. "War, in itself, will never solve anything."
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Israel acting with impunity in Middle East, says Robinson
Meanwhile, former president and and chair of The Elders Mary Robinson said Israel is acting with impunity in the Middle East as it is not being restrained.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland Mrs Robinson said The Elders, which is an international non-governmental organisation founded by Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela, have spoken out against violence on all sides of the conflict and are in no way anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic.
"All parties need to de-escalate and recognise that military aggression and retaliation, retaliatory attacks can't solve this conflict and civilians are paying the price for the pursuit of military approaches over dialogue and political solutions," she said.
"The Elders condemn violence against civilians on all sides, but we see coordinated action to protect Israeli civilians from attack by Iran, and that stands in stark contrast to the lack of any protection for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and Lebanese civilians."
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Mrs Robinson said that The Elders have "repeatedly called for the United States to restrain Israel's actions ... through the suspension of arms transfers to Israel".
"Arms transfers, especially of offensive weapons that are not required for legitimate self-defense, cannot be justified in a context where international, human, human humanitarian law is being violated," she added.
US President Joe Biden should have not supplied arms to Israel from the beginning, Mrs Robinson said, and said "international humanitarian law is being horribly transgressed".
"This bad right-wing government of Israel has decided it can now aggressively attack.
"It has overreacted in relation to Gaza and decimated Gaza with not just 42,000 killed, but think of the injuries particularly to children, life-affecting injuries, now the people of Lebanon and the potential for retaliatory attacks on Iran."
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She warned that this could be "a forever war" for Israel as the current government is dragging that country towards that scenario.
"Obviously, we don't support Iran sending missiles to Israel, but what we need is to tone down and see that retaliatory attacks may lead to a total war, which would be disastrous because it could be a forever war for poor Israel and Israel’s citizens."
"There is a disproportionate aggressive response by Israel at the moment and that needs to be reined in"
Mrs Robinson also said she would be "very sorry if my remarks are seen in any way as being anti-Israel.
"The Elders absolutely agree with Israel's right to defend itself, right to live as a state in peace in the region. That's what we've always championed.
"But there is a disproportionate aggressive response by Israel at the moment and that needs to be reined in and could be reined in by stopping supplying the weapons.
"I wish for the Israeli people that they have a better future than this government is leading them to, where they are becoming a pariah state where this could be a forever war for them."
She also said that a peace deal is the only way to end this conflict, beginning with a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
As the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 2024 approaches, listen to 'Drivetime In-Depth, War in Gaza' - available on RTE.ie/radio or wherever you get your podcasts.
