The extremely serious situation that has been experienced in Gaza for four months, the imminent offensive in the city of Rafah, the fact that the prospects for the population are increasingly gloomy, made yesterday the head of the European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, raised the need to stop sending weapons to Israel.
Borrell lamented that while more and more countries consider Israel’s attacks “disproportionate” and “excessive,” including US President Joe Biden, Israel is still being supported by sending weapons and it’s time for more than words. “Let’s be logical: how many times have the world’s most prominent leaders and foreign ministers heard that many people are being killed?”, Borrell asked at a press conference of Cooperation ministers. “President Biden has said that it is already too much, that it is not proportionate. Well, if you think that a lot of people are being killed, maybe you should send less weapons”, said the head of European diplomacy, who recalled that it would not be the first time that Washington acts in this way, already suspended the shipment of arms to Israel in 2006, during the Lebanon war.
Borrell explained that it is “a bit contradictory” that several leaders go to Tel-Aviv “praying that, please, stop killing civilians, there are too many dead people. Please, don’t kill so many, please, stop. Stop saying ‘please’ and do something”, urged the high representative for Foreign Policy.
In any case, he regretted that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “doesn’t listen to anyone”, and that the country’s Government has announced that they will “evacuate” the population to intensify the military offensive in the city of Rafah, south of Gaza. “When there is a war, people run away, but people in Gaza cannot run away. The doors are closed. They are bombarded without being able to escape”, assured Borrell. “Where will they be evacuated, to the Moon?”, he quipped.
Borrell made these statements after meeting with UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, to whom he conveyed that the European Union, the agency’s main global donor, will keep the funds for the duration of the investigation that has opened the organization following accusations that a dozen of its workers participated with Hamas in the October 7 attack.
Brussels has no payment planned until the end of February, a total of 82 million euros.
Lazzarini assured that they took the accusations very seriously and therefore acted accordingly, although Borrell emphasized that, for now, they are only accusations. “For now, I have not received any proof”, he added. After the scandal, eighteen countries have announced the freezing of aid to the agency, including Japan, France and Germany, on which thousands of people depend every day.
If the situation does not change, UNRWA will begin to have funding problems in March, with a deficit that “will increase negatively from April”.
