EU to hold emergency talks on Israel on Tuesday

Brussels, Belgium — AFP

EU foreign ministers will be holding urgent talks on the situation in Israel and Gaza on Tuesday after Palestinian resistance fighters launched a surprise assault Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

“I am convening tomorrow an emergency meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to address the situation in Israel and in the region,” Borrell wrote in a social media post.

Borrell and a number of EU foreign ministers are currently in Oman for long-planned talks with Gulf states from the Gulf Cooperation Council.

A spokesman for Borrell in Brussels, Peter Stano, said the EU talks would be held in a hybrid video and in-person format.

The EU has strongly condemned the unprecedented attack by the Hanas that has sparked a barrage of strikes by Israel on Gaza.

More than 700 Israelis have been killed and at least 100 kidnapped in the assault that has left the country reeling and sparked fears of a broader escalation in the region.

The reprisal bombing campaign by Israel in Gaza has killed 493 people, according to Palestinian officials.

Spokesman Stano said the EU’s executive arm was “reviewing” how the attack by Hamas could potentially impact the EU’s current and future financial assistance to the Palestinians.

“Whatever adjustment of the EU position and reaction to what is still going on on the ground will come from from that meeting in form of an agreed EU position,” Stano said.

The bloc, one of the major financial supporters of the Palestinian people, has envisioned spending some 1.2 billion euros ($1.26 billion) between 2021 and 2024 on schools, hospitals and salaries among other things.

The European Commission insists that none of the support has gone to fund Hamas or any other Palestinian resistance group.