BRUSSELS, June 18, 2025 (WAFA) – The EU Foreign Policy chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday described Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as genocide.
“Israel's stated objective is to take control over the entire Gaza Strip,” the EU Foreign Policy Chief Kallas addressed a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while stressing the need to put pressure on Israel.
The European Parliament’s session was held under the title “Stopping the genocide in Gaza: time for EU sanctions,” at the initiative of the Left Group, comprising 46 representatives.
She added that “what we see in practice from Israel goes beyond self-defence,” while noting that “Blocking food and medicine for Palestinians trapped in Gaza doesn’t protect Israel,” and that “By-passing UN aid deliveries doesn’t help the people. It undermines decades of humanitarian principles.”
She pointed out that “90% of people living in the Strip have already been displaced. Those who remain are entirely dependent on aid which isn’t coming in,” as reiterating that the humanitarian situation in the war-battered enclave was still deteriorating.
Referring to Israel’s plan to seize complete control of the Gaza Strip, displace the entire population to a small area of land in the south and provide Palestinians with only enough food so they don't starve to death, as part of an expanded military operation ominously called "Gideon's Chariots", Kallas said that Israel has been using disproportionate force, continued targeting civilian infrastructure, resulting in an unacceptable death toll.
Commenting on Israel’s objective of displacing the Gaza population and annexing the Strip, Kallas affirmed that “Altering, reducing or annexing territory is a direct violation of international law. Should all or parts of Gaza’s civilian population be permanently forced from their homes, this too would be a violation of international law.”
Condemning the upsurge of colonists’ violence against defenseless Palestinian civilians and highlighting ongoing Israeli military aggression in the West Bank, movement restrictions, among other measures, Kallas said: “Intimidation campaigns, physical and verbal attacks, and the destruction and burning of property and homes are leading to the displacement of entire Palestinian communities.”
She urged Israel, the occupying state, to “face to face with its own extremists.”
“And what is happening in the West Bank threatens the formation of a Palestinian state and peace for the region in the long run,” she added.
Kallas urged the EU Member States to “put the pressure on Israel”, “do everything we can possibly do to alleviate suffering” of the Palestinian people, and recalled that the EU Member States have urged Israel to reverse its decisions to expand settler-colonialism in the West Bank, repeatedly condemned violence by colonists, and sanctioned nine colonists and five entities responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Renewing the call for putting pressure on Israel, she said: “Pressure must increase on the Israeli government. I will do this on my side as I have repeatedly done.”
She reiterated that the EU “remains firmly committed to a two-state solution” and that “the two-state solution is the right path and always will be. It is the only means for just and lasting peace for Israelis as well as the Palestinians.”
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