The heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven agreed this Thursday to request a “pause and humanitarian corridors” from Israel and Hamas to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and support the holding of a peace conference “in soon.” admitted the president of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. However, European leaders have avoided questioning Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions on the Palestinian population, which have caused the deaths of more than 7,000 civilians.
European Union leaders, in an agreement ahead of schedule but after hours of the meeting, asked “continued, rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian accessand aid to reach those in need by all means necessary including humanitarian corridors and breaks for humanitarian needs.”
During the hours of the meeting, several drafts were prepared and the discussion revolved around the inclusion of the concept of a “humanitarian pause” or “humanitarian pauses” for aid to reach the Gaza Strip. The inclusion of this concept represents progress, because at the beginning of this week many countries were wary of this type of requests, because they considered that it could lead to a decrease in support for Israel’s self-defense after to attack Hamas.
Specifically, these are countries like Germany, Italy or Austria that do not see well the term humanitarian pause, and have chosen the plural argument which means that there is a short and specific pause in the arrival of aid. “The important thing is that help comes,” some leaders said before entering the meeting to lower this semantic discussion.
Regarding the dead, which has reached the number of 7,028 in the Gaza Strip after the heavy bombardment by Israel, the final text prepared by the leaders of the Twenty-Seven is limited to “reiterating the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times. times in accordance with humanitarian law”.
