The President of the European Council, Charles Michel stressed, Tuesday, that key priorities for the 27-member EU, is to end the war in Gaza, and called for an immediate ceasefire.
“The EU has three key priorities first, ending the war in Gaza and ensuring the protection of all civilians, every day without a ceasefire is another day of blood and death,” he told the Gaza aid conference in Jordan earlier.
“We call for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the provision of humanitarian assistance,” he said.
“Since March, we have urged the Israeli government not to undertake a ground operation in Rafah.
The orders of the International Court of Justice must be respected. We strongly support the 3-phased approach, starting with a ceasefire and the release of hostages as endorsed by the UN Security Council yesterday,” stated Michel.
He noted that over 37,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 85,000 injured by Israeli-occupation forces, 75 percent of the population in Gaza
is internally displaced, with nowhere safe to go.
This war has also been a nightmare for the children of Gaza, 17,000 of them are separated from their families and many are orphans, many have had limbs amputated, often without proper medical conditions, each of these numbers represents a human life, he said.
Elsewhere in his speech Michel stressed that “UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, And we do not accept any attempt to label it as such.
We will continue to support them, together with our member states. We also pay tribute to all aid workers who risk their lives to help others. Many have paid the ultimate price.” He concluded his speech saying, “that security without peace is not security. Peace is the best and lasting security guarantee for both Israelis and Palestinians. We have consistently supported the two-state solution”.
Source: Kuwait News Agency