By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has slammed the call by Israel’s foreign minister to displace Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “completely unacceptable”.
Addressing reporters ahead of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday, Borrell raised concern that “the bombing continues” in Gaza and “the number of civilian casualties (is) increasing.”
“It is still more worrisome the call from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel (Yisrael Katz) to displace people from the West Bank, doing more or less the same thing that they did with the people in Gaza,” Borrell added.
“This is completely unacceptable, and I hope that the Ministers will raise their voice against the situation in Gaza, in the West Bank, the treatment of the United Nations, and the way this war is being performed in accordance or, in violation of the humanitarian law.”
In a post on X on Wednesday, Katz said the Israeli army has been conducting an intensive military operation in the Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps, targeting what he referred to as “Iranian-backed Islamic terrorist infrastructure.”
“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required. This is a war for everything and we must win it,” Katz stated.
Ceasefire Delays
Borrell also criticized the delay in a ceasefire in Gaza, saying “The conversation for a ceasefire has been sliding from one day to another, without getting any result.”
He said the UN’s Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag will brief the ministers on the situation in the region.
“She will explain the situation of even the United Nations, which are under strong pressure of the Israeli government, preventing all the United Nations organizations to do their work,” Borrel said, adding “I do not have to tell you which is the situation in Gaza. Every day is more terrible than the previous day.”
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
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, 40,602 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,855 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
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’.
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.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.
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