EU leaders still hope to stop the war in Gaza without taking action against Israel

Brussels – Seventeen sanctions packages were not enough to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet the EU has an eighteenth ready. However, to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Brussels is still convinced that discussions with the Israeli government are enough. From the summit of the heads of state and government of the 27, there is no breakthrough after the report certifying that Israel has violated the terms of the Association Agreement with the EU. For now, the leaders “take note” and postpone the discussions to the next meeting of foreign ministers in July.

The conclusions of the report commissioned by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, from the European External Action Service are “undeniable,” a diplomatic source stressed yesterday. Therefore, the European Council could not pretend that nothing was wrong. In the end, after a discussion “behind closed doors, without reporting, and without telephones,” a skimpy line appeared in the final document of the summit on Article 2 of the Association Agreement, which binds the contracting parties to respect human rights.

The leaders buy themselves another month; in the meantime, Kallas reportedly has already intensified contacts with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in the hope that the threat of the possible implications of violating the agreement will convince Tel Aviv to change its attitude. “We are not talking about suspending the agreement, but about involving the Israeli authorities,” a source confirms. Yet, the two partners have already talked about it extensively. On 5 February, an EU-Israel Association Council met in Brussels.

The 27 member states are also so divided on the issue that “the very fact that we are discussing it with the Israeli government is important.” While a handful of countries – primarily Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia – are calling for the immediate suspension of the agreement and threatening to act alone with sanctions against the Israeli government, others – including Italy – see it as a counterproductive move to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu.

All share the objective to “end hostilities, grant unimpeded access to humanitarian aid, and release of the hostages.” Brussels does not go beyond this perfectly legitimate stance. The conclusions of the summit then become essentially a copy-and-paste of those of previous summits: the European Council “deplores the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation;” Israel “must fully comply with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law.”

Almost everyone would agree — at the very least — on further sanctions against those who engage in violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank. The leaders “reiterate the call on the Council to take work forward on further restrictive measures against extremist settlers and entities and organizations which support them.” All except one: the Hungarian government, which blocked its adoption at the Foreign Affairs Council in May. Tonight, the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik was attacked by groups of Jewish settlers, who set fire to houses and vehicles and opened fire on unarmed civilians. Three people died. Today, according to data from the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, 56 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.