EU foreign ministers to hold emergency meeting over developments in Israel, Gaza Strip

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – EU foreign ministers will hold on Tuesday an emergency meeting to discuss recent developments in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the bloc’s foreign policy chief announced on Monday.

Josep Borrell said on X that he is “convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers to address the situation in Israel and the region.”

The gathering will be considered as an "informal emergency meeting" as Borrell and a number of top EU diplomats will be in Oman’s capital Muscat, while the other foreign ministers will join them online, the European Commission’s lead spokesperson on foreign affairs, Peter Stano, said at the EU institution’s daily news meeting.

Borrell has already arrived in Muscat to participate in the of EU-Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting, he added.

Borrell and top EU officials, including European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the multiple and indiscriminate attacks across Israel by Hamas” over the weekend.

Borrell held a conversation over the phone with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to express the bloc’s solidarity with the country.

He also spoke with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh to ask “the Palestinian Authority to contribute to immediate cessation of hostilities, promote the interest of the Palestinian people and the aspiration of the whole region to security and stability.”

The Gaza-based resistance group Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel early Saturday, firing a barrage of rockets. It said the surprise attack was in response to the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and increased Israeli settler violence.

In retaliation, the Israeli army launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

At least 700 Israelis have so far been killed and over 2,300 others wounded in the fighting, according to the Israeli Health Ministry.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed and over 2,700 wounded.