European Union foreign ministers didn’t adopt any measure against Israel on Tuesday as they discussed a “common understanding” reached between Brussels and Jerusalem last week to significantly improve and increase humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
“The European Union will keep a close watch on how Israel implements this common understanding and the pledges and will update the compliance every two weeks,” E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas declared after a Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
“We see positive signs. We see more trucks and supplies are reaching Gaza. We see more entry points opened. We also see electricity lines being repaired. But Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground,” Kallas told reporters.
“But if the situation is not going to improve, then the member states are also willing to take next steps. The goal is to improve the situation, because it is really untenable, the humanitarian situation,” she added.
The ministers discussed the E.U.-Israel agreement brokered last week after intense dialogue between Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to increase the number of trucks and distribution of food entering Gaza as well as the opening of several other crossing points.
But they also examined a list of 10 options prepared by the E.U.'s External Action Service against Israel following a review of the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement’s Article 2, which deals with respect of human rights. Israel has rejected the review as “absurd and unjustified.’”
The measures include the suspension of the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement and a series of other trade sanctions.
“We will keep these options on the table and stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges. The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza,’” Kallas told reporters.
E.U. foreign ministers also made clear that a ceasefire deal with Hamas still remains a priority.
Sa’ar on Tuesday night said Jerusalem had achieved “important diplomatic success when we managed to fend off all types of obsessive attempts by several countries in the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel.”
“I thank our friends in the European Union and their foreign ministers, who stood by our side and prevented harm to Israel, which would also have been harm to the European Union itself,” the diplomat tweeted.
“The attempts to harm Israel’s image, diplomatically and legally, will continue. Our struggle is in full swing. We will continue to fight for the justice of Israel’s cause and to strengthen its diplomatic ties,” he added.
On Monday, Sa’ar had declared that “not any” of the 10 measures that Brussels prepared against the Jewish state would be adopted, stating that “there is no justification whatsoever” for them.
Speaking to the press as he arrived in Brussels to attend a ministerial meeting between the E.U. and nations from the Middle East and North Africa, he said: “What we see is Hamas stopping people to get the aid directly because they want to be the mediators of humanitarian aid.”
“It is crucial that this aid will be given to the people and it is important to disconnect the aid from Hamas,” said Sa’ar, adding: “This is part of the things that we have raised in our dialogue with the E.U., to develop methods [of aid delivery] that will reach the people and not Hamas.”
This is an edited version of an article originally published by the European Jewish Press.
