EU foreign policy chief Borrell cancels his trip to Israel

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) – European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell cancelled his planned visit to Israel, according to Israeli media on Thursday.

Borrell is currently on a regional tour that took him to Egypt and Lebanon for talks on current regional tensions over Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

But the top European diplomat told Israel's ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, that he decided to cancel his visit to Israel after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz refused to permit it, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Borrell announced his plans to visit Israel on Sept. 14-15, but Tel Aviv asked him to postpone the visit to late October, which would come after his term in Brussels concludes.

Borrell has been under Israeli fire over his call for imposing sanctions on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over their hate messages against Palestinians.

The European diplomat expressed his outrage on Thursday over Israeli airstrikes on a UN-run school which left at least 18 people dead in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip a day earlier.

In March, Borrell accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon against Palestinians by preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into war-torn Gaza.

“Gaza was before the (Israeli) war the greatest open-air prison. Today, it is the greatest open-air graveyard,” he said in earlier statements.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last October despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 41,100 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 95,100 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.