The EU’s foreign policy chief said Israel’s plan to destroy Hamas in Gaza was not working at the bloc’s foreign ministers meeting.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief insisted on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying Israel’s plan to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza was not working.
Ahead of talks with top Israeli and Palestinian diplomats, Josep Borrell said Monday that Israel cannot build peace “by military means alone,” echoing United Nations condemnation of the Prime’s “unacceptable” rejection Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza.
“What we want is to build a two-state solution. So let’s talk about it,” Borrell said. “What other solutions do they have in mind? Make all the Palestinians leave? To kill them?
The bloc’s 27 foreign ministers are expected to hold separate meetings with their counterparts from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and major Arab states on Monday in Brussels, as violence continues in the Gaza Strip.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also supported Borrell, saying a two-state solution is the “only solution” to the conflict and would allow peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.
“All those who say they do not want to hear about such a solution have not provided any alternative,” she added, while calling for an urgent “humanitarian pause” in what has been described by several governments and rights groups as genocide. campaign in Gaza.
Netanyahu on Sunday reaffirmed his hard line on any Palestinian state, saying it would pose “an existential danger” to Israel.
Referring to Israel’s goal in its devastating three-month war in Gaza, Borrell told reporters: “To say that the destruction of Hamas is the goal is one-sided, because it means that it will be up to Israel to decide when he will think (Hamas) has become sufficiently weak. We cannot continue to work like this.”
Israel’s massive air and ground offensive in the small, densely populated Gaza Strip has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, authorities say, and displaced most of its 2.3 million residents from their homes.
Israel says the war could last “several months” and would not end until Hamas is eradicated, all Israeli prisoners are released and Gaza no longer poses a security threat.
The war in Gaza has has plunged the Middle East into new turmoil and raised fears of a wider conflict.
Ahead of the Brussels meeting, the EU’s diplomatic service sent a discussion paper to its 27 member countries, suggesting a road map to peace in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the heart of the plan is a call for a “preparatory peace conference” to be hosted by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, the United States and the United Nations also being invited to be the organizers of the conference. gathering.
An internal document, seen by several news agencies, indicates that if either Israelis or Palestinians refuse to participate, both sides would be consulted at every stage of the talks as delegates seek to develop a peace plan.
The document makes clear that one of the key objectives of the peace plan should be the creation of an independent Palestinian state, “living alongside Israel in peace and security.”
Netanyahu’s office said Saturday, after a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden, that Israel must maintain security control of Gaza “to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.
