Belgium: European Commission President Ms. Ursula von der Leyen has stated that the European Union will increase humanitarian aid to Gaza by $26.9 million.
“By doing so the European Union would spend a total of $108 million in humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza,” Ms. von der Leyen remarked.
Mr. Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, suggested a plan under which Israel could suspend its military operation in Gaza in exchange for the Red Cross getting access to captives detained by Hamas.
“I think that a humanitarian pause counterbalanced by access to hostages with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a first step to their release is an initiative in which we should work,” Mr. Borrell told EU diplomats.
To ensure that those in the besieged region receive aid, the EU, the US, and the UK have been pushing for “humanitarian pauses” in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that a temporary ceasefire cannot happen until all of the hostages taken in Hamas’s October 7 attack are freed.
“Call it a truce, window, whatever, but we need that violence recedes and that international humanitarian law is being respected,” Mr. Borrell added.
As the war neared its one month and the Hamas-run health ministry’s death toll approached 10,000, Israeli forces continued their heavy-handed bombardment of Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Mr. Borrell warned that an “overreaction by the Israelis, in the end, makes them lose the support of the international community”.
“There is no military solution to the conflict. Even if Hamas is uprooted in Gaza, this will not solve the problem of Gaza,” the head of EU foreign policy commented.
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