Divided EU weighs action against Israel over Gaza war

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers on Tuesday will discuss a raft of options for action against Israel over the war in Gaza, but likely will not agree on any.The bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has put forward 10 potential steps after Israel was found to have breached a cooperation deal between the two sides on human rights grounds.The measures range from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.But despite growing anger over the devastation in Gaza, EU states remain divided over how to tackle Israel and diplomats say there appears to be no critical mass for any move."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 do we do with these options," Kallas said Monday.The tone of discussions will be shaped strongly by how Israel is implementing a promise to the EU to improve humanitarian access to Gaza. Kallas said Thursday she had struck a deal with her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to open more entry points and allow in more food.Gaza's two million residents are facing dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited aid during its devastating war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"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."At a meeting of EU and neighbouring countries in Brussels on Monday, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said the situation in Gaza remained "catastrophic".

'No justification'

Israel's Saar, speaking at the same meeting, sounded confident his country would avoid further EU action."I'm sure not any of them will be adopted by the EU member states," said the foreign minister. "There's no justification whatsoever."While the EU appears unable for now to take any further moves against Israel, just getting to this stage has been a considerable step.The bloc only agreed to review the cooperation deal after Israel relaunched its devastating operation in Gaza following the collapse of a ceasefire in March.Until then deep divisions between countries backing Israel and those more favourable to the Palestinians had hamstrung any move.The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,386 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable.