European Union international coverage chief Josep Borrell has urged allies of Israel, primarily america, to cease sending it weapons as “too many individuals” are being killed in Gaza.
Pointing to US President Joe Biden’s remark final week that Israel’s army motion was “excessive”, Borrell mentioned on Monday: “Effectively, when you imagine that too many individuals are being killed, perhaps it’s best to present much less arms in an effort to forestall so many individuals having been killed.”
“Is [it] not logical?” he requested, in a Brussels information convention alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), who’s Israel is pressuring to resign.
“What number of occasions have you ever heard probably the most distinguished leaders and international ministers all over the world saying too many individuals are being killed?” Borrell requested.
“If the worldwide neighborhood believes that it is a slaughter, that too many individuals are being killed, perhaps we now have to consider the availability of arms,” Borrell added.
The chief EU diplomat additionally slammed an order by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the multiple million Palestinians sheltering within the Gaza metropolis of Rafah should be “evacuated” forward of a deliberate Israeli army operation there.
“They will evacuate – the place? To the moon? The place are they going to evacuate these individuals?” Borrell requested.
This isn’t the primary time Borrell expressed involved over an invasion of the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah. On Sunday, he mentioned an assault there “would result in an unspeakable humanitarian disaster” and grave tensions with neighbouring Egypt.
Rafah incursion ‘terrifying’
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis mentioned European nations share accountability for the atrocities being dedicated in Gaza.
“We Europeans created the issue … we’re taking part in a vicious position, in its perpetuation,” Varoufakis instructed Al Jazeera.
The previous finance minister accused Borrell of hypocrisy for saying not sufficient strain was being utilized on Israel, asserting that the EU was “collectively arming” Israel.
“As we communicate, Germany, France, [and] Italy are sending the armaments which can be being utilized in Rafah to kill individuals,” Varoufakis added.
His newest feedback got here as dozens were killed in Israeli air strikes on Rafah, in keeping with Palestinian well being officers, as individuals there brace for a significant offensive on the densely crowded city space.
In the meantime, Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, has additionally expressed alarm over an anticipated Israeli floor assault on Rafah.
Turk mentioned it’s “wholly possible what would lie forward” if the deliberate incursion is just not stopped.
“A possible full-fledged army incursion into Rafah, the place some 1.5 million Palestinians are packed in opposition to the Egyptian border with nowhere additional to flee, is terrifying, given the prospect that a particularly excessive variety of civilians, once more principally youngsters and girls, will probably be killed and injured,” Turk mentioned in an announcement.
Rights teams have additionally warned {that a} full-scale assault on Rafah, the final comparatively protected space of the enclave, would lead to important civilian casualties.
Greater than half the inhabitants of Gaza has crowded into Rafah to flee Israeli bombardment, which has diminished a lot of the remainder of the Gaza Strip to ruins.
Most of these in Rafah have been displaced by Israeli offensives in northern, central, and jap Gaza.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, has warned Israel that a ground offensive in Rafah would jeopardise negotiations on a truce and the trade of captives and prisoners.
Greater than 28,340 individuals, principally girls and youngsters, have been killed within the Israeli assault on Gaza since October, in keeping with Palestinian authorities. The relentless Israeli bombardment and floor offensive have displaced greater than 80 p.c of the inhabitants, in keeping with assist businesses, and diminished a lot of the territory to rubble.
Israel launched its warfare on Gaza after Hamas carried out a shock assault on southern Israel on October 7, killing no less than 1,139 individuals, principally civilians, in keeping with an Al Jazeera tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
