EU foreign ministers on Tuesday will discuss a range of options against Israel over its conduct in the Gaza war, though with the least chance of agreeing on any. EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has put forward 10 potential steps after Israel was found guilty of breaching the cooperation deal on human rights grounds.
The measures include suspension of trade, sanctioning Israeli ministers and diplomats, and imposing an arms embargo on the nation.
However, even when the majority of the EU nations do support the ceasefire, the bloc has remained divided over criticising Israel’s actions.
Kallas has said, "I was asked to give the inventory of the options that could be taken, and it's up to the member states to discuss what we do with these options.”
The discussions are supposed to evaluate Israel's promise made to the bloc to improve humanitarian access to Gaza, which was blocked after it announced the resumption of operations on March 19 this year.
While the unabated killing of desperate aid seekers is going on, Kallas said she had struck a deal with her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to open more entry points and allow in more food. More than two million residents of Gaza, who were systematically pushed by the Israeli regime for decades, are in desperate need of food, water, and medicines.
"We see some good signs of more trucks getting in," Kallas said Monday. "But of course we know that this is not enough and we need to push more so that the implementation of what we have agreed also happens on the ground."
Also read: Israeli forces kill 78 in Gaza, amid deepening hunger crisis
While the EU’s inaction has frustrated human rights organisations, just getting to this position where the Pro-Israel Bloc is even discussing imposing restrictions on Tel Aviv is a considerable step.
Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza has killed at least 58,386 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, which the UN considers credible.
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