European Union (EU) High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell compared Gaza to Ukraine and said that some of Israel’s military responses violate international law, reports Anadolu.
“We said it in Ukraine, and we say it in Gaza: you cannot cut off water and all communal services to the entire population. We must constantly repeat, put pressure and insist (that Israel abides by international law),” Borrell told the Spanish newspaper “El Pais “.
Borrell said this a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Israel, where she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and uncritically promised Europe’s support for Israel.
Borrell also “condemned Hamas and the militia, because they make it impossible to find peaceful solutions”.
“What happened did not happen for a long time and emotions are at their peak… Now we have to deal with the most urgent, which is the situation in Gaza and preventing the spread of the conflict,” he added.
Borrell added that the Israeli order to evacuate more than a million civilians from northern Gaza within 24 hours is “totally unrealistic”.
“Our delegation there is getting information from people in shelters and hospitals where people are injured who are saying, ‘How are we going to leave, how are we going to move if there’s no transportation?'” Borrell said.
He added that an “overwhelming majority” of EU officials at a meeting earlier this week opposed ending aid to Palestine.
He also said that after discussions with “all actors” at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, it was confirmed that the infrastructure was badly damaged by the bombing.
The head of European diplomacy said that this whole crisis “shows that the international community has forgotten about the Palestinian problem.”
“Israel has been making peace with other Arab countries, but it has sidelined Palestine. There must also be peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. If nothing else, can this serve as an urgent call to the international community to try to respond to this,” Borrell said. .
Borrell, who was visiting China, said he also spoke with the Chinese foreign minister about the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
“The Chinese minister, like others from Arab countries, emphasized that we forgot about the Palestinians. That’s fine. But that doesn’t justify what Hamas is doing and it certainly doesn’t help the Palestinian issue,” the European official said.
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