The essentials in brief:
EU foreign ministers call for “immediate” ceasefires
EU: Hamas uses civilians as shields
More hostages may be released in the Gaza Strip
Scholz: An immediate ceasefire would be “not right”
Thunberg is positioning himself against Israel again
The EU is pushing for a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Middle East war. “In view of the humanitarian situation, there must be a ceasefire and immediately,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell following a meeting of the 27 EU foreign ministers in Brussels. The representatives of the EU states had already agreed on the declaration on Sunday before the meeting. The requirement is new in that the breaks should take place “immediately”. Humanitarian corridors are needed so that help can reach Gaza.
Borrell also announced a trip to the Middle East in the coming days. Borrell said he was planning a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories this week, as well as to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. He wanted to speak “with leading politicians in the region about humanitarian aid and political issues.”
On his trip to the Middle East, Josep Borrell wants to talk to politicians about humanitarian aid and political issuesImage: Dursun Aydemir/Andalou/picture alliance
The responsible Commissioner Janez Lenarcic was also present at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. According to him, there are no basic supplies of water, food or medicine in Gaza.
EU chief diplomat wants a two-state solution
The EU is strongly committed to establishing humanitarian corridors to allow aid to reach the Gaza Strip. 40 trucks are currently coming through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt every day. That is very little, emphasized Borrell. Before the war there were 500 trucks per day. One consideration is therefore to bring relief supplies across the sea.
We now have to look at the end of the conflict and a longer-term perspective, said the EU chief diplomat. “This solution can only be the creation of two states.”
EU: Hamas uses civilians as shields
The European Union has accused the radical Islamic group Hamas of using hospitals and civilians in the Gaza Strip as “human shields”. In a statement issued by foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on behalf of the EU, Israel was called on to exercise “the greatest possible restraint” in order to protect the lives of civilians. Israel accuses Hamas of setting up command centers under and near clinics. Hamas denies this.
“The EU is deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” said Borrell. The EU joins the calls for an “immediate” pause in fighting and the “establishment of humanitarian corridors” in order to be able to provide the population of the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid. “Civilians must have the opportunity to leave the combat zone.”
More hostages may be released in the Gaza Strip
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at the possibility of an agreement to release more hostages kidnapped by Hamas. Asked whether such an agreement could come, Netanyahu told US television channel NBC: “It could be.” He added: “The less I speak out on this issue, the more I increase the chances of this becoming a reality.” According to Netanyahu, such negotiations had made no progress at all until the start of the Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. “But the moment we started the ground offensive, things started to change.”
Photos of people who were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip on a projectionImage: Bernd Riegert/DW
NBC and other US media reported, citing government sources, that it was being discussed that Hamas could release around 80 women and children in return for Palestinian women and teenagers held in custody in Israel. US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC broadcaster that negotiations were ongoing in which Qatar was involved. The US government is actively involved in this.
Netanyahu: US and Europe “next up”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appealed to Americans to view the war against the terrorist organization Hamas as their war. “It’s not just our war, it’s your war too,” warned Netanyahu on US television. “It is the battle of civilization against barbarism,” he told CNN. If Israel does not win the war, the scourge will continue to spread beyond the Middle East and then affect Europe and the United States. “You will be next,” Netanyahu warned.
Benjamin Netanyahu (archive) also sees the USA and Europe in danger. Image: Christophe Ena via REUTERS
The Israeli head of government once again vehemently rejected growing international criticism of the high number of civilians killed in the war. “Israel is fighting in accordance with international law,” he emphasized. “The Israeli army is doing an exemplary job in trying to keep civilian casualties as low as possible.” Every civilian life lost is a tragedy. But the blame for this lies solely with Hamas.
Five weeks after the brutal attack on Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, there are increasing calls for the weapons to be silenced. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called for an end to Israel’s “brutal aggression” in the Gaza Strip at a summit in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday called on the United States to force Israel to stop its offensive in the Gaza Strip. “It is vital that we reach a ceasefire,” said Erdogan.
The Arab League calls for a stop to Israeli attacks on targets in the Gaza StripImage: Office of the Palestinian President/dpa/picture alliance
Scholz: An immediate ceasefire would be “not right”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out against an immediate ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war. Humanitarian breaks could make sense, for example to get the wounded out of the Gaza Strip, said Scholz. “But I’m happy to admit that I don’t think the call that some are making for an immediate ceasefire or a long pause – which are basically the same thing – is right.” A ceasefire would ultimately mean “that Israel should let Hamas recover and purchase new rockets again. So that they can then fire again. We will not be able to accept that,” said the Chancellor, who spoke at an event organized by the newspaper ” “Heilbronner Voice” expressed.
Thunberg is positioning himself against Israel again
Despite all the criticism directed at her, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has once again used an opportunity to publicly take sides with the Palestinians. Wearing a traditional black and white Palestinian scarf around her neck, she told a livestreamed rally in Amsterdam on Sunday that the climate movement had a duty to “listen to the voices of those who are oppressed and who fight for peace and justice.” . Thunberg then passed the microphone to a woman who also wore a Palestinian scarf and claimed that Israel was committing “genocide in my country.”
Greta Thunberg (M.) with a Palestinian scarf in AmsterdamImage: Peter Dejong/AP/dpa/picture alliance
Many participants in the rally reacted indignantly. A man jumped onto the stage in front of cameras and shouted into the microphone: “I came here for a climate demonstration, not to hear political views.” Thunberg then appealed to the participants to remain calm and then chanted several times: “No climate justice on occupied land.” (“There is no climate justice on occupied land.”)
nob/hf/uh/wa/gri/ack (dpa, afp, rtr)