BRUSSELS, August 7, 2025 (WAFA) – A senior EU official stated on Thursday that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip ‘look very much like’ genocide.
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death. A concrete population is confined, with no homes — being destroyed — no food, water or medicines — being forbidden to access — and subject to bombing and shooting even when they are trying to get humanitarian aid. Any humanity is absent, and no witness[es] are allowed," European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera told Politico.
"If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning," she added.
She urged the EU to consider suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement and suggested the EU countries opposed to measures against Israel register their objection by abstaining from any votes on EU actions, while allowing the majority to pass them swiftly.
“Consensus is not always about unanimity in enthusiasm. Sometimes, it means finding room to move forward while acknowledging the concerns of those who feel cornered … Could we decide on the suspension of the association agreement and/or other measures to reach those goals through a constructive ‘non-objection’ decision?”
Sanctions, she said, would require unanimity within the EU. But if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to take full control of the Gaza Strip, Ribera said the international community and individual countries "should use the means that could facilitate the return to compliance."
"What ... has been said and done by the Israeli authorities go far beyond the international law limits," she added.
Ribera warned that inaction could damage the EU's credibility, saying: "We need to show that Europe is not just a set of institutions, but a political and moral project with the courage to respond when human lives are at stake."
Israel unilaterally ended the Gaza ceasefire agreement and resumed its aggression on the Strip on Tuesday, March 18, carrying out a wave of bloody airstrikes across the Strip and killing hundreds of Palestinians.
The death toll reached at least 9,752 with 40,004 others wounded, according to medical sources. In the last 24 hours, the bodies of 100 slain Palestinians, including two retrieved from the rubble, and 603 casualties were admitted to Gaza hospitals.
Israel has waged a military onslaught on the Strip since October 2023, killing 61,258 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 152,045 others.
Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
K.F.
