The Israeli military campaign in Lebanon continued at a ferocious pace last week while Hizballah fighters displayed a previously unknown military capacity by firing rockets into northern Israel. The original Israeli action was prompted after Hizballah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid on 12 July.

Up to this weekend the conflict has left about 450 people dead in Lebanon and another 50 in Israel. The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet this week to discuss the Bush-Blair proposals which, along with humanitarian relief, aim to end the violence, to return home those displaced by the crisis and ultimately to help with the reconstruction of the battered region.

So will Irish army officers be travelling to Lebanon?

Going into Lebanon would not be a new experience for the Irish defence forces.

Since 1948 there have been five wars connected with the hostilities between Arabs and Israel, each of which had ended with the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers.

In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1978, the UN oversaw the withdrawal of Israeli forces and they remained in place for almost a quarter of a century to secure the nascent peace process. Some 500 Irish army personnel . . . rotated every six months . . . contributed to this mission. Their task was to maintain security in the region as well as manning checkpoints and observation posts along the border between Lebanon and Israel. With the departure of the last Israeli troops from southern Lebanon the UN presence was reduced significantly from late 2001 onwards.

Over the 23 years of peacekeeping duties in the region, 47 Irish defence forces personnel were killed. Since 2001, a small UN contingent has been operating in southern Lebanon. When the latest conflict broke out earlier this month there were over a dozen Irish peacekeepers on duty in the region.

And what about the safety of the Irish army in Lebanon?

Four UN peacekeepers . . . from Austria, Canada, China and Finland . . . were killed by Israeli bombs which landed on their observation post last Wednesday. An Irish officer had been working at the bunker base earlier in the week. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said the action was "either an incredible accident. . . or else the observation post was in some way directly targeted". David Megiddo, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, described the deaths as an accident as he repeated his government's response to the death. "You can't forget that this is a war zone, " Megiddo said.

There are currently 17 Irish army personnel in the region with 10 of those in southern Lebanon working from the UN offices in Laquora. The safety of these officers in southern Lebanon has been monitored on a daily basis by their superiors in Dublin. Former president, Mary Robinson, added her voice to those who have argued that it is important for Ireland and other countries to keep their UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. There are no plans as yet to bring the Irish personnel home.

What do the politicians want done?

The most blatant example of jumping on the bandwagon in search of publicity has come from several politicians who have called for a twinning arrangement between Dublin and Beirut.

More significantly, the conflict in the Middle East has re-energised Labour's Michael D Higgins, who has been one of the main critics of the Israeli action.

After addressing a protest march to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin yesterday, the Labour TD will join a demonstration outside the US Embassy in Ballsbridge tomorrow evening. "The ongoing destruction being visited upon Lebanon is not justifiable. We in Ireland must show the strength of opposition which exists towards the war being waged by Israel, " Higgins said.

He has been critical of the government's response. "We cannot continue to be among those nations who have settled for muted criticism of Israel, and should be leading the international response to end these attacks before the carnage gets even worse."

The government would . . . and with some credibility . . . take issue with this assessment of their response. Government ministers have sharply criticised the activities of Hizballah. They have also used strong language to condemn Israel. The Israeli military action in southern Lebanon was described as a "gross over-reaction and way over the top" by defence minister Willie O'Dea.

"Nobody denies that the Israelis are entitled to get their troops back but their actions haven't helped to keep the region stable, " O'Dea said. The government has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire.

Consideration about deploying Irish troops as part of a wider UN mission in Lebanon will only be forthcoming in the event of an end to military hostilities. Ireland's ability to contribute troops may be constrained by commitments in other regions, especially with several hundred officers currently in the Balkans and another thousand in Liberia.

However, given Ireland's long-standing involvement in the Lebanon, the government is likely to look favourably on a request to participate in an overseas mission that follows a cessation of violence between Israel and Hizballah.