European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called on Israel\u2019s allies, especially the United States, to cease supplying it with weapons as \u201ctoo many people\u201d are being killed in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. Citing US President Joe Biden\u2019s statement from last week regarding Israel\u2019s military action being \u201cover the top,\u201d Borrell on Monday said: \u201cWell, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you could provide less arms in order to prevent so many people from having been killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs [it] not logical?\u201d he questioned in a Brussels news conference alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), who Israel is pressuring to resign, as per Al Jazeera \u201cHow many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world say too many people are being killed?\u201d Borrell asked.<\/p>\n
According to Al Jazeera, Borrell added, \u201cIf the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe we have to think about the provision of arms.\u201d Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s instructions are being criticised by the Chief EU diplomat: that more than a million Palestinians seeking refuge in the Gaza city of Rafah be \u201cevacuated\u201d ahead of a planned Israeli military operation there.<\/p>\n
Borrell asked Israeli PM that, \u201cThey are going to evacuate \u2013 where? To the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people?\u201d The EU foreign policy chief expressed concerned over an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. On February 11, he said an assault there \u201cwould lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe\u201d and grave tensions with neighbouring Egypt. Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stated that European countries share responsibility for the atrocities being committed in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Europeans created the problem \u2026 we are playing a vicious role, in its perpetuation,\u201d Varoufakis told Al Jazeera. Borrell was blamed by the former finance minister for hypocrisy for saying not enough pressure was being applied to Israel, asserting that the EU was \u201ccollectively arming\u201d Israel. \u201cAs we speak, Germany, France, and Italy are sending the armaments that are being used in Rafah to kill people,\u201d Varoufakis added.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Volker Turk, the UN\u2019s human rights chief, has also expressed distress over an anticipated Israeli ground assault on Rafah. Turk said it is \u201cwholly imaginable what would lie ahead\u201d if the planned incursion is not stopped. Additionally, he added in his statement that \u201cA potential full-fledged military incursion into Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are packed against the Egyptian border with nowhere further to flee, is terrifying, given the prospect that an extremely high number of civilians, again mostly children and women, will likely be killed and injured.\u201d<\/p>\n
The majority of Gaza\u2019s population has sought refuge in Rafah to escape Israeli airstrikes, which have devastated large parts of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, the governing body in Gaza, has cautioned Israel that any ground incursion into Rafah could disrupt ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners. Palestinian authorities report that over 28,340 people, predominantly women and children, have lost their lives in the Israeli offensive since October.<\/p>\n
Aid agencies estimate that more than 80 percent of Gaza\u2019s population has been displaced, and extensive damage has been inflicted on the region. Israel initiated its military campaign in response to a surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,139 individuals, primarily civilians, according to an Al Jazeera analysis of official Israeli data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called on Israel\u2019s allies, especially the United States, to cease supplying it\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":30979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[8448,10004,2911,8259,1485,10003,1380,716,493,1418,101,536,10006,320,344,10005,776,4600],"class_list":["post-30978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aid-to-israel","tag-arms-supplies-to-israel","tag-bombing-of-civilians","tag-diplomatic-crisis","tag-egypt","tag-european-union-foreign-policy-chief-josep-borrell","tag-gaza","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-joe-biden","tag-palestine","tag-rafah-evacuation","tag-refugees","tag-un","tag-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-unrwa","tag-us","tag-volker-turk"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}