BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza had turned the territory into the world’s biggest “open-air graveyard”.

“Gaza was before the war the greatest open-air prison. Today it’s the greatest open-air graveyard,” Borrell said at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

“It’s a graveyard for tens of thousands of people and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.” Borrell also reiterated his accusation that Israel was using famine as a “weapon of war” by not allowing aid trucks into Gaza.

“Israel is provoking famine,” he told a humanitarian conference.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz hit back at Borrell and told him to “to stop attacking Israel and recognise our right to self-defence against Hamas’ crimes.” “Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” Katz wrote on X.The 27-nation EU has struggled to come up with a united response to the crisis in Gaza as some members firmly back Israel and others are more pro-Palestinian.

EU ministers were set to discuss a proposal by Ireland and Spain to suspend a cooperation agreement with Israel, but that move was unlikely to get the support of all 27 countries.

The bloc was however expected to agree on sanctions both against Hamas for sexual violence on Oct 7 and against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank for attacking Palestinians.

Britain and the United States have already imposed sanctions targeting a small number of “extremist” settlers.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024