“Certainly the situation is very worrying. I cannot anticipate the humanitarian losses that this will cause”, warned Borrell, in front of the press, upon arrival at a European Development Council of Ministers.
“It will produce another major humanitarian crisis, even greater than the one that currently exists. We will see how we can mitigate the consequences of this situation”, he continued.
The head of EU diplomacy regretted that the Israeli ground offensive against Rafah (south of Gaza) has begun (despite all the petitions from the international community).
“I fear that this will again cause many civilian casualties”, he insisted and recalled that in the Gaza Strip there are more than 600,000 children who will be “pushed to safe zones”, stressing that there are no “safe zones” in Gaza.
He also highlighted that the EU is not on the ground to gather information, something it obtains through the press and the United Nations, which “have the capacity to assess the situation” on the ground.
Asked whether European ministers will take any action in the face of this situation, the Spanish politician stated that Development officials spoke today about “how to increase support”, and that on the 27th, the political situation will be considered.
“This is not the place to discuss sanctions, but rather cooperation and support. We will see at the next Foreign Affairs Council,” he commented.
Regarding the letter sent by Spain and Ireland to the European Commission, asking for the restriction of the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel, Borell said that, according to the information available to him, the president of the institution, Ursula von der Leyen, did not respond to the missive.
Borrell made it clear that, at this moment, unfortunately, there is no possibility of beginning to discuss peace plans”, and called for continued work for a ceasefire, for the release of hostages held by the Islamist group Hamas and for the beginning of a process political.
Furthermore, he said he sees no reason why payments to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, should not be resumed following the independent report prepared by former French minister Catherine Colonna, following Israeli accusations of terrorism against the organization.
Following this report, Borrell assured that the idea of cutting funding to UNRWA “is baseless”.
He recalled that all member states have resumed payments to UNRWA, “a fundamental institution for hundreds of thousands of people”.
He also pointed out that he has received a letter from the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, in which he requests that the European Commission proceed with the further funding planned for the agency, and hopes that member states will support this request.
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