EU High Representative Josep Borrell regretted that a ceasefire agreement in Gaza had not been reached and responded to the Egyptian government’s call during his visit to the country for the international community to put pressure on Israel, but he was pessimistic. “We can exert diplomatic pressure on the Israeli authorities, but our capacity is limited,” the head of European diplomacy acknowledged in statements to the press at the Rafah border crossing.
“We are doing what we can, the United States too, but something is wrong here. I don’t understand why the ceasefire has not been reached.” “Someone is procrastinating,” said Borrell, who once again criticized the massacre that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is carrying out against the Palestinian population. After recalling that the EU had condemned in the “strongest” terms the Hamas attack on Israel, he assured that “one horror cannot justify another horror.” “And what is happening today in Gaza is another horror, it is not a question of defense, it is a violation of human rights,” he added.
During its visit, the Egyptian government stressed the responsibility of the international community and the EU to exert “intense pressure” to reach an agreement to end the current war in Gaza, reports Francesca Cicardi. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelaty denounced on Monday that the Israeli government is “lying” about why it has not withdrawn from the Gaza-Egypt border in order to “divert attention from its crimes and murders against civilians” in the Palestinian enclave, reports EFE agency.
Borrell supported the efforts of the mediators (the United States, Egypt and Qatar), but acknowledged that there was a lack of “political will” for the ceasefire to become a reality.
The head of European diplomacy also criticized the blockade of the Rafah border crossing, which prevents the arrival of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population. He described the area as a “museum of rejected products” in a place where up to 1,400 trucks are blocked and cited as an example the refusal to allow energy bars to pass, which would provide the necessary caloric intake, under the pretext that they are a “luxury item.”
“There are too many obstacles,” Borrell said of this humanitarian support, which he said is the first step in the crisis and that the search for a political solution must then be addressed. “The most urgent thing is for these ambulances to enter or to receive the wounded,” Borrell said, also recalling that the EU was ready to provide means so that the border could be reopened, but that security conditions and an agreement had to be respected. that involves the parties.
