European Union puts Middle East aside. No call from the 27 for cease-fire in Gaza

Brussels – No call for a cease-fire: on the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the European Union is a broken record, unable to play a tune despite the more than 18,000 civilian casualties among the Palestinian population and a loud and clear call for a cease-fire issued by the United Nations on December 12.

The paragraph devoted to the Middle East in the conclusions of the EU leaders’ summit is emblematic: “The European Council held a profound strategic debate,” nothing more. The perfect summary is provided by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the sidelines of the proceedings: “It was preferred to reiterate the conclusions of the last European Council because if we had somehow reviewed those conclusions probably some disagreements would have made the work difficult.”

Total condemnation of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, immediate release of all hostages, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law, and continued aid access to the Strip guaranteed by the establishment of humanitarian pauses. This had been delivered last Oct. 25-26. Nearly two months later, the Israel Defense Forces have in no way changed their military strategy, there has been only one humanitarian pause, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has relentlessly denounced insufficient humanitarian aid access in the Strip.

After the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly, with the positive vote of 17 EU countries and opposition from only Austria and the Czech Republic, some optimism had filtered in that the common position of the 27 could evolve. “It is a fact that many more people are leaning toward calling for a ceasefire,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, had stressed yesterday while noting that on the issue “there is no common position.” Strong words came from the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulidīs, who in the morning had called it “a failure for the European Union” not to reach strong and unified conclusions on the conflict.

Also Spain, Ireland, and Belgium tried to convince the ten countries still reticent (at the UN, in addition to Austria and the Czech Republic’s no, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovakia abstained). But they had to raise the white flag. “It is true that among the members of the European Council there are different sensitivities on the humanitarian pause or the ceasefire, but this issue should not hide the essential, which is the common and shared determination to be mobilized on the humanitarian level” and “on the political process to arrive at the two-state solution,” tried to save the day the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.

“Today’s goal was not to discuss written conclusions,” the European leader further clarified. But the paragraph on the Middle East is in the final text of the summit’s political messages, and it was also included in its versions from previous days. The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen preferred to focus on the “immediate priority of providing as much humanitarian aid as possible” to Gaza, announcing that to date the European Commission has managed to coordinate 28 airlifts totaling 1,200 tons of aid for the more than 1.9 million internally displaced persons, and that an additional five flights have been planned.

Von der Leyen went on to state that “both sides must do their utmost to protect civilian lives.” While it is true that, as confirmed by Unrwa’s daily bulletins, indiscriminate rocket launches by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continue, the disproportion of the grim death toll is increasingly heavy: Israel mourns 1,400 citizens (almost all dating back to Oct. 7), while among the population of the Gaza Strip, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health and relayed by Unrwa, as of yesterday, at least 18,787 Palestinians have been killed, about 70 percent of which would be women and minors. With 50,589 wounded, only 11 out of 36 hospitals are still partially functional.

There is also very little on the possibility, which the European Commission is working on, of introducing a sanctions regime for Israeli settlers who are guilty of violence against civilians in the West Bank. According to the U.N. Ocha-Opt office, there have been at least 343 settler attacks in the West Bank since Oct. 7, with 10 deaths and 263 cases of damage to Palestinian property. “We condemn the resurgence of settler attacks in the West Bank,” Michel said.