The Palestine Chronicle / July 5, 2024
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has reportedly said the biggest regret of his term has been his failure to influence the Israeli government to avoid the death and destruction in Gaza.
Speaking at the European Council on Foreign Relations meeting in Madrid on Thursday, Borrell said the EU had been a “non-actor” in the crisis, reported the Anadolu News Agency.
“Almost 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, and the international community and the EU have not been able to get a ceasefire and start thinking of a political solution after how many months?” he lamented.
“This is my biggest frustration and biggest example of how, when the EU is divided, we cannot even fulfill the role of a geopolitical actor that we pretend to be.”
He also reportedly said the EU’s credibility is at risk due to its “division” and “irrelevance” in the situation, adding “The heart of the EU could be below the ruins of Gaza.”
Borrell stressed “To clearly show the world that lives matter, whether in Ukraine or Gaza, is one of the most important political endeavors of the European Union. And when we say that cutting water, electricity and food to the civilian population is a war crime, when we talk about Ukraine, the same words need to be used when we talk about Gaza. But this is not the case.”
Borrell said the EU will be judged by other nations — from South East Asia to Latin America to Africa — over its “capacity to defend basic principles” and the way it responds to this war.
‘Crisis within crisis’
On Friday, the EU said it was “deeply concerned” over the Israeli army’s evacuation orders for civilians from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a joint statement issued on Friday, Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said some 250,000 people “are impacted” by the evacuation orders which also threaten patients at the European Hospital – one of the few remaining partially functioning hospitals in the south.
“Forced evacuations are creating a humanitarian crisis within the crisis,” the EU officials said. “They exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation, with nearly 1.9 million Gazans displaced within the Strip, as stated by UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag in the Security Council.”
“There are no facilities to accommodate people, and humanitarian partners struggle to meet the immense needs of the newly displaced,” the statement said.
‘Must conform with IHL’
On Monday, the Israeli army ordered residents of eastern Khan Yunis to leave immediately, claiming the area had become a “dangerous combat zone.”
The Israeli army reportedly directed people to head to designated humanitarian zones in the western part of the city, specifically the Al-Mawasi area.
The EU officials said that for evacuations “not to amount to prohibited forcible transfers, they must conform with International Humanitarian Law,” guaranteeing safety in transit and proper accommodation in areas of refuge for Palestinians called on to evacuate.
“Israel is likewise responsible for guaranteeing that displaced persons are able to return to their homes, or areas of habitual residence, once hostilities end,” the statement said.
The officials said a ceasefire is “all the more important now” and reiterated the “legally binding” orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of January 26 and May 24 wherein the court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah.
In January, the ICJ called on Israel to avoid actions that could lead to genocide and to facilitate humanitarian access to Gaza.
Khan Yunis has seen multiple attacks and raids since the current onslaught on the enclave began last October.
Rising death toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, and 87,445 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
