UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM SPANISH, BELGIAN AND SWEDISH FOREIGN MINISTERS
By Nur Asena Erturk, Beyza Binnur Donmez and Merve Berker
ANKARA / GENEVA (AA) - The Israeli foreign minister’s call to displace people from the West Bank is “completely unacceptable,” the EU foreign policy chief said Thursday.
Before attending the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Josep Borrell told reporters that UN’s Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag will brief the ministers on the situation in the field.
She will “explain the situation and the situation of even the United Nations, which are under strong pressure from the Israeli government, preventing all the United Nations organizations to do their work,” Borrell said.
He also regretted the delay in the possible outcome of cease-fire talks and the increase in civilian casualties as the bombing continued.
“The call from the minister of foreign affairs of Israel to displace people from the West Bank, doing more or less the same thing that they did with the people in Gaza, this is completely unacceptable,” Borrell said.
He expressed the wish that the EU ministers would raise their voices against this, and also “the treatment of the United Nations and the way this war is being performed in accordance on all violation of humanitarian law.”
- 'Unacceptable' level of violence in West Bank
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares stressed, during his doorstep remarks, that there is an "unacceptable" level of violence in the West Bank.
"The movements that occurred yesterday in the West Bank and the level of violence are very serious," Albares said, warning that the risk of the conflict spreading is at "its highest."
"That is why Spain, both at a national level and supporting the sanctions of the European Union, has imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers," he said.
He noted that Madrid would insist during the meeting to use the "full range of measures at our disposal to ensure that peace returns to the Middle East, to ensure that the decisions of the International Court of Justice, which are also binding on Israel, are complied with" with the EU-Israel Association Council.
"The European Union must raise its voice to achieve a definitive cease-fire and to end this situation, and to finally allow all peoples, including the Palestinians and the Israelis, to coexist in peace and security," he underscored.
- ‘A tragedy, a humanitarian catastrophe’
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that Brussels’ proposal regarding the latest developments in Gaza and the West Bank “is to have a cease-fire.”
Describing the need for a cease-fire as an “emergency,” the official said: “It is a tragedy, a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Mentioning that there will be a meeting with the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza about the matter, Lahbib said: “What we are witnessing now is an escalation, a contamination (of violence) in the West Bank, which is unprecedented since more than 20 years.”
“So, it's time to negotiate and to have a long-term strategy,” she said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom also spoke about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank due to Israeli strikes.
“The immense suffering of the civilian population in Gaza must end,” he said, adding: “We really encourage all the parties now to move forward so that we can have an immediate cease-fire, and then, of course, a massive relief of emergency aid coming into Gaza.”
This would follow the release of hostages and the return to “a two-state solution,” he noted.
He also mentioned “the growing problems of extremist settlers’ violence in the West Bank,” which Stockholm “takes very seriously.”
“We look forward to a discussion on how to curb this and how to see to it that the order is reestablished, an order that does not allow for any of the innocent Palestinians to be attacked,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank, the largest in two decades, killing 17 Palestinians, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the "temporary evacuation" of Palestinian civilians as well as "whatever steps are required" to carry out the operation.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
The onslaught has resulted in more than 40,500 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,700 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.