European Council President António Costa has urged the international community to “fully implement” a Gaza roadmap linked to a two-state solution, saying conditions on the ground have “barely improved” over the past year.
Costa referred to a “New York Declaration on the Two-State Solution” endorsed by 142 states last year and to UN Security Council Resolution 2803 as providing a framework for a Gaza peace plan, according to his remarks at a high-level international meeting published by the European Council on Wednesday.
He set out steps he said should be implemented: “the decommissioning of Hamas matched by Israel’s withdrawal”, deployment of an “International Stabilisation Force and police”, and the entry into Gaza of a “National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.”
Costa said “two million people face another winter in tents and rubble” and blamed restricted access rather than a lack of funding or aid for the situation.
West Bank settlements and elections
He stated that the two-state solution was being “jeopardized on a daily basis” in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, citing settler violence, impunity, displacement of communities and “de facto annexation”, and said settlements are illegal under international law.
Costa also called for the Palestinian Authority to be “empowered through elections” and urged Israel to facilitate them.
He said the European Union and its member states support a two-state solution through the “Global Alliance”, and described the EU as the “largest donor to Palestinians since the 90s.”
He also noted that EU civilian missions — EUBAM Rafah and EUPOL COPPS — remain deployed and that the EU is ready to scale them up.
