At the end of the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council in Brussels on Tuesday 15 July, the High Representative of the Union, Kaja Kallas, said that there were signs of improvement in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
“We see positive signs, we see more trucks and supplies are reaching Gaza. We see more entry points opened, we also see electricity lines being repaired”, declared Ms Kallas after the EU Council meeting.
However, “more concrete steps” by Israel are expected by the EU27 as part of the “common understanding” on humanitarian aid announced on 10 July between the EU and Israel (see EUROPE 13678/27).
“The European Union will keep a close watch on how Israel implements this common understanding”, warned the High Representative.
Ms Kallas stressed that the situation on the ground remained “untenable” and pointed out that a fortnightly assessment had been agreed with the Member States. "If the situation is not going to improve, then the Member States are also willing to take the next steps. (...) It is not that we are counting every truck all the time but the trend that we see, tangible improvement, we do not see that”, she stressed.
According to the World Health Organization figures dated 12 July, 2,229 people died in Gaza in June, and 1,379 in July. In addition, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a massive influx of victims linked to aid distribution sites, organised in recent weeks through the private organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (see EUROPE 13651/27), has overwhelmed the health system. “The scale and frequency of these incidents are without precedent”, reported the ICRC in a press release on 8 July.
No progress on options concerning the EU-Israel Association Agreement. At the end of the EU Council, the High Representative announced that she had presented the ministers with an inventory of the various measures that could be taken as part of the review of the Association Agreement (see EUROPE 13679/13). “We had a discussion on this (and) these are choices that the Member States have to make. We will keep these options on the table and stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges”, she explained. And she added: “The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza”.
According to a European source, the positions of the Member States during the discussion were similar to those expressed previously.
When they arrived at the EU Council, the ministers were divided on the measures to be taken. “It is not a question of taking sides, but of defending international law and EU rules”, explained the Spanish minister, José Manuel Albares Bueno. He called for the Association Agreement to be suspended, “at least for as long as the war lasts”, for an embargo on arms sales to Israel to be introduced, for sanctions to continue to be imposed on those who oppose the two-state solution, and for regulations on the labelling of products from the occupied territories to be respected.
His Slovenian counterpart, Tanja Fajon, said that the EU should use all the means at its disposal to prevent the continuation of the war and the “massacre of civilians”, supporting all the measures proposed, including the suspension of the Agreement. Ms Fajon said that if Europe failed to take a decision, her country could take measures at national level, such as an arms embargo and a ban on imports of products from illegal Israeli settlements.
For the Czech minister, Jan Lipavský, there should be no restrictions whatsoever on the Association Agreement. “On the contrary, I imagine we could get the (Association) Council together and discuss it. If any of the Member States wish to raise the issues of human rights, Gaza or the humanitarian situation, they can do so” during the Council, he said.
Conference on the two-state solution at the end of July. In addition, France’s Jean-Noël Barrot announced that a conference on the two-state solution would be held in New York on 28 and 29 July. Initially scheduled for mid-June, the meeting was postponed because of the conflict between Israel and Iran. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Bernard Denuit)