THE IRISH AMBASSADOR to Israel has been summoned by the Israeli foreign minister to be reprimanded over comments Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made over the release of Irish-Israeli hostage Emily Hand

On X, formerly Twitter, last night Varadkar said: “This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered.”

In a reply to Varadkar, a spokesperson for the Israeli government Eylon Levy said: “Emily Hand wasn’t ‘lost’. She was brutally abducted by the death squads that massacred her neighbors.”

“She wasn’t ‘found’. Hamas knew where she was all along and cynically held her as a hostage. And Hamas didn’t answer your prayers. It answered Israel’s military pressure.”