The EU continues to believe that its recent understanding with Israel on increasing humanitarian access to Gaza is on track although there is still uncertainty about the amount of aid which has been delivered until now amid the on-going war and the absence of a new ceasefire-hostage deal.
As previously reported, EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas announced on 10 July, ahead of the foreign affairs council meeting on 15 July, that following a constructive dialogue between the EU and Israel, significant steps had been “agreed by Israel” to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
It turned out that no binding agreement had been signed by the EU and Israel and that the two parties had reached an “understanding” on increasing the aid to Gaza. The EU focused on diplomatic outreach to improve the disastrous humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza. Israel focused on gaining time in averting an EU decision on the association agreement or other sanctions.
In her press remarks following the foreign affairs council, the High Representative for the first time called what had been agreed with Israel by its correct name – an understanding.
“Last week Israel and the EU reached an understanding for the expansion of the humanitarian aid into Gaza, so we see positive signs, we see more trucks and supplies are reaching Gaza, we see more entry points opened, we also see electricity lines being repaired but Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground.”
She added that the EU will keep the options in the review paper on the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the table and stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges. “The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza.”
A real change on the ground, however, is not likely to happen until the ceasefire-hostage deal has been finalized and that will apparently not happen until US President Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will return to Doha, Qatar, where the talks are held, to put pressure on both sides.
The inflow of humanitarian aid is clearly not enough, Kaja Kallas said, and the situation is still untenable and needs to be monitored. “Our people are in constant contact with the international actors on the ground, Israel, and also the neighbouring countries that are having the control of the crossing points so that they can say, what is the actual numbers that are going in.”
It was agreed at the council meeting that the monitoring will be carried out by the ambassadors of the EU Member States, who every two weeks will get updates on the situation on the ground. A Commission spokesperson told The Brussels Times that a follow-up will take place at the informal foreign affairs council meeting (“Gymnich”) on 29-30 August.
What is known about the amount of aid? A senior EU official said at a technical briefing on Friday that the daily number of trucks with food and non-food goods amount to about 80, compared to only 20 before the understanding. “This is not the number of trucks we are aiming at but we’ll have to look at the figures again next weekend.”
He was satisfied that Israel had reached an understanding with the EU because of the review of the Association Agreement, which shows EU’s leverage. The Jordan route of humanitarian aid has already been opened and he expected that the Egyptian route will be opened as well, although it was not clear if the Rafah border crossing will be opened.
Asked if the EU trusted the figures given by COGAT, the Israeli agency which coordinates the government activities in the occupied territories, he replied that the EU is not relying on one specific source. The figures have to be verified as in every relationship and cross-checked with the UN agencies the EU is working with.
The EU needs to see a clear increasing trend of humanitarian aid and also an improvement in the distribution of the aid. Currently most of the aid is still distributed by the American-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been condemned by the EU. “We have been clear about GHF, their distribution of aid is unsafe, inhuman and unacceptable.”
A COGAT spokesperson claimed on Friday that the number of daily trucks was close to 160 and dismissed the criticism against GHF as unreliable. The EU – Israel understanding did not include anything about phasing out GHF and replacing it by UN agencies and international NGOs.
