EU ministers discuss agreement with Israel to increase Gaza aid

The foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states meet today in Brussels, following a new Gaza relief agreement, which has been reached mainly by Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Saar met with EU leaders on Monday, after last week he agreed to allow the entrance of essential food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people.

“We have reached a common consensus with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it has nothing to do with the document, but with its implementation”, Kallas said before the Council of Foreign Affairs meeting.

While the situation has not really improved, then we have not done enough”, she added, calling for a ceasefire.

Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have dismissed any co-operation with Israel's humanitarian Gaza Fund due to ethical and security concerns.

Opening more border points and allowing more trucks with aid to enter Gaza is a priority, but officials say they definitely want to create a monitoring point at the Kerem Shalom border.

European states, such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, are increasingly calling for a review of EU relations with Israel after the war in Gaza.

A European Commission report found “tegregues” that Israel's actions in Gaza are violating the human rights obligations involved in the agreement regulating relations with the EU, but the bloc is divided on how to act in this case.

Public pressure on bringing Israel to Gaza made this new humanitarian agreement possible even without a ceasefire, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said.

It is the force of the 27 EU member states that I want to save now”, he said, the transmission Periscope.

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno said details of the agreement are still being discussed and that the EU will observe the results to see if Israel is implementing the agreement.

“We don't know if we're going to know how it works, he said. It's very clear that this agreement is not the end. We have to stop the war”.

The Gaza War began after the Palestinian group, proclaimed by the US and the EU terrorist organisation, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.

Most hostages have been released during previous ceasefires.

Since then, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The EU has seen the entrance of several Gaza relief trucks, but “not enough”, said Hajda Lahbib, the EU Commission for humanitarian aid and crisis management.

“The situation is still very dangerous, very violent, with bombings continuing in the field, so our humanitarian partners cannot act. This is reality, we need a 148x1> truce, she said. / REL