On Tuesday 10 September, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, condemned the attack by the Israeli armed forces on a refugee camp in Gaza, which reportedly left at least 40 people dead and 60 injured. Israel says it struck “senior Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the Khan Younès humanitarian area”.
“I cannot not raise my voice against these kinds of things. War always has laws. It is difficult to believe that these laws of war are being fulfilled”, denounced Mr Borrell at a press conference with the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty (see other news).
The High Representative reiterated the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza. “We also have to focus our collective efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a hostage deal in Gaza, while doing everything we can to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation of the people there”, he pleaded, praising Egypt’s role in the search for a truce.
He regretted that a ceasefire agreement had been close so many times, but never achieved. “Why? Quite simple: because those who are waging war have no interest in putting an end to it. So they are pretending. Less and less pretending, because their intransigence is accompanied by total impunity and their acts have no consequences”, complained Mr Borrell, both to the minister and in a speech to the League of Arab States.
Stopping the West Bank from becoming a new Gaza. The High Representative warned against the conflict extending to the West Bank, “where radical members of Netanyahu’s government are trying to make it impossible to create a future Palestinian state”. “A new front is being opened with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza – in rising violence, delegitimising the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully, and not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza. And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settler movements are preparing new settlements”, denounced Mr Borrell. The High Representative felt that the prospect of a two-state solution was receding and reiterated the need for action.
According to the High Representative, the countries of the Arab League could “accelerate the slow - certainly too slow - change in perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by reaffirming the Arab Peace Initiative and making it better known all over the world”.
Avoiding ‘Gaza fatigue’. He added that the EU and the Arab countries needed to reaffirm the basic principles of a settlement. “The legal bases are there and have been clearly stated by the International Court of Justice. What’s missing is the political will to implement them. We need to raise our voice at the next United Nations General Assembly and avoid a kind of ‘Gaza fatigue’, which will embolden the extremists and postpone once again the idea of a political settlement”, stressed Mr Borrell.
Mr Borrell believes that the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month in New York will be an opportunity to mobilise the international community. “We have to launch the process, not just an event, in order to continue working every day with everybody willing to build the two-state solution, committed and looking for what kind of pressure we can put on the ones who do not want this solution”, he explained. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)