An Irish-Palestinian citizen who has been stuck in Gaza since the conflict erupted on 7 October has said his family was happy to hear that people were being allowed enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing, but were upset that their names were not on the list.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ibrahim Alagha, who is in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, said: "Our situation is really difficult in terms of transportation. I mean every day, it gets more difficult to move around with less fuel and more dangerous conditions on the roads.
"And also, with the ground invasion expanding, so it is getting a lot more dangerous."
He added that communication was a major problem. Mr Alagha said he had been cut off for the last 18 hours.
"All phone calls and internet service was cut off completely, so what I really fear is that we will get to a point where maybe something will happen to our names on a list, but that could not be communicated to us."
Mr Alagha and his wife and three children were in Gaza City on holiday, and have been unable to return to Ireland.
Under a deal reached between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, a number of foreigners and critically wounded people are being allowed to leave Gaza.
Two sources at the border said that the first group of foreign passport holders have been evacuated and have reached the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it has not been notified of any Irish citizens included on the list to leave Gaza today.
In a statement, the DFA said it is urgently seeking to have Irish people included in subsequent evacuations.
It said the embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv are in "constant communication" with the authorities in Egypt and Israel about Irish people stuck in Gaza.
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Mr Alagha said he hopes he and his family can be evacuated soon.
"I hope it happens soon. Otherwise, it might be too late.
"Two weeks ago, we were promised that things would move on quickly, but it has been more than two weeks, we are still here.
"We have extremely limited food. At any point, we do not have more than supplies for a day. In terms of water - we do have water. The water that we have is undrinkable water, but we are drinking from it.
"In terms of energy supply, we only have a solar system that we use for charging our phones and for lights during the night, and that is it."
He said his family has run out of cooking gas and is now cooking on an open fire outside.
"It's very risky because the smoke could alert something in the sky and we could be targeted. Hopefully we'll be ok," he said.
Mr Alagha also said parts of the main square in Khan Yunis has been hit in air strikes.
"Its unbelievable, the amount of rubble," he said in a video update filmed today.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader said the Government have given the Egyptian and Israeli authorities a list with the names of Irish people in Gaza.
"We have supplied all of the names that we have to the authorities, so they are on a list."
He added that this included Mr Alagha and his family.
"Communications over the last 48 hours, in particular, became much more difficult with internet and all communication cut off, as you know. As the Israeli armies began their incursion into Gaza and bombing again.
"So that has made things challenging, but we have not been notified of anyone being on the list today.
"We are obviously now and have been engaged with the authorities again today with a view to get our citizens on a list as early as possible and getting them out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing."
Mr Martin said the evacuations are sporadic when asked if there will be more to come he said they were notified very late yesterday that the crossing would be opened today.
"It is a very, very fluid situation. It is very difficult to be certain."
He said it was extremely difficult for people like Mr Alagha and added that is why Ireland had consistently called for a humanitarian pause to enable people to leave and for humanitarian aid to come in.
"I have spoken to the Egyptian Foreign Minister last week about this, and stressed the need to get our citizens out."
He said he had spoken with all foreign ministers in the region to highlight the plight of Irish citizens within Gaza.
"The indication back to us is that it is passport holders and citizens only, however, we are making the case to the authorities and will continue to make the case to the authorities in respect of dependents.
"And particularly families in a situation where the husband could be an Irish citizen, his wife may not be an Irish citizen, so we will continue to press those cases."
The Tánaiste said that this was an ongoing problem.
Commenting on the bombing of the refugee camp and whether Israel was complying with international law, Mr Martin said the rules of war apply to state actors and non-state actors.
"I think the attack last evening was not proportionate that is a personal view I have."
But he said it is up to the international criminal court, who will decide if war crimes have been committed.
"But from a moral perspective... Israel has a right to go after Hamas no question about that given the appalling, barbaric attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas, but you cannot kill potentially up to 150 civilians now we are hearing in a refugee camp..."
He added that more children have been killed in Gaza since 7 October than in all conflicts all over the world since 2019, according to UNRRA.
"Children are the major casualties of this onslaught on Gaza, and that to be is disproportionate."
"You cannot justify the bombing of a refugee camp on the basis that you get one or two Hamas senior commanders and destroy the tunnels, meanwhile entire families are being wiped out."
He said diplomacy is essential to maintain communications when asked should Israeli diplomats be expelled.
He said that idea is "misplaced completely."
He said the prospect of getting Irish civilians out of Gaza is "lessened considerably" if Ireland starts cutting off diplomatic relations.
Last month, Mr Alagha's eight-year-old son, Sami, spoke about life in Gaza.
