EU calls for ‘meaningful’ pauses in Israel’s war on Gaza

Brussels, Belgium – – AFP

The EU’s humanitarian aid chief has called for “meaningful” pauses in Israel’s war on Gaza and urgent deliveries of fuel to keep hospitals working in the territory.

“It is urgent to define and respect humanitarian pauses,” Janez Lenarcic, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels.

“Fuel needs to get in. As you could see, more than half of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip stopped working, primarily because of lack of fuel, and fuel is desperately needed.”

The appeal went out as Israeli attacks around Gaza’s largest hospital continued, which has become the focus in the five-week-old war.

The Palestinian health ministry has said that the hospitals in the centre of the heaviest fighting in north Gaza have been forced out of service amid shortages and the fierce strikes.

The EU’s 27 countries had earlier issued a statement saying hospitals “must be protected. ” They also accused Hamas of using the medical facilities and civilians as “human shields”.

The bloc demanded “immediate humanitarian pauses” to allow desperately needed aid into the besieged territory.

“These pauses have to be meaningful,” Lenarcic said.

“First of all, they have to be announced well in advance of the implementation so organisations can prepare to exploit them. Second, they have to be clearly defined time-wise.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted that “Gaza needs more aid from any point of view”.

“Water, fuel, food. This aid is available, is in the border waiting to come in,” he said.

The Israeli army is pushing on with its aggressive attacks against Gaza’s desperate civilian population.

Over a month into the onslaught, Israel is now facing intense international pressure to “minimise” civilian suffering amid its massive air and ground operation. It has killed at least 11,180 people, including 4,609 children.

Israel also said that 44 of its troops have been killed.

Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, said that hospitals in Gaza should not be turned into “battlefields”.

“Patients who are in intensive care units have no chance,” he said.

“There is no more oxygen, there is no more water, there are no more medicines. So these people are going to die.”