EU Opposes Total Siege Of Gaza, Says Borrell

Muscat, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 11th Oct, 2023) EU foreign ministers on Tuesday urged Israel not to cut “water, food, or electricity” to Gaza and called for humanitarian corridors for those trying to flee the territory, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.

The representatives of the 27 EU countries held emergency talks after the surprise attack by Hamas and as Israel unleashed a reprisal bombing campaign of Gaza.

The European ministers insisted on the need for “respect of international law humanitarian law and it means no blockage of water, food or electricity to the civil population in Gaza“, top diplomat Josep Borrell said.

He said the EU meeting called for “humanitarian corridors to facilitate people who have to escape the bombing of Gaza” across the border to Egypt.

After mixed signals from Brussels over the future of its financial support, Borrell said an “overwhelming majority” of EU states oppose suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority.

“The fact is that at the moment the casualties in Gaza are also increasing, 150,000 people are internally displaced and the humanitarian situation is dire,” Borrell said.

“So we will have to support more, not less, more.”

Fears of a regional conflagration have surged amid expectations of a looming Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, the crowded enclave from where Hamas launched its land, air and sea attack on Saturday.

The death toll in Israel has surged above 900 from the worst attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza officials have reported 765 people killed so far, and Israel‘s army said the bodies of roughly 1,500 militants had been found.