In a joint statement on Monday, the foreign ministers of 28 countries, among them 20 EU Member States, came together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now.
In the statement, published by the British foreign ministry, they called on the Israeli government to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively”.
According to the statement, the Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.”
The statement draws also the attention to the Israeli hostages in Gaza. “The hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly. We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release. A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.”
“Netanyahu should listen to the Israeli people, some 82% of whom desperately want a ceasefire, and to the hostages’ families, because they know a ceasefire offers the best chance to bring their loved ones home,” British foreign minister David Lammy said at a parliamentary debate yesterday.
Furthermore, the signatories “strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories . . . settlement building across the West Bank including East Jerusalem has accelerated while settler violence against Palestinians has soared. This must stop.”
The statement ends with an urgent call “to the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. The signatories reaffirm their complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this”.
They are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region, possibly referring to the upcoming high-level political conference in New York on the implementation of the two-state solution.
“The UK is co-leading with Egypt the humanitarian and reconstruction track for the forthcoming two-state solution conference, and we are pushing to agree plans for a credible next phase in Gaza, with a responsible, reformed Palestinian Authority at their core, so that we can turn any temporary ceasefire into a lasting peace," David Lammy said.
The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
The EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, signed also the statement. The signatories of Kaja Kallas, EU High Commissioner for foreign affairs and security policy, and Dubravka Šuica, Commissioner for the Mediterranean, were missing.
Update: The article has been updated to include a reference to David Lammy’s speech. The European External Action Service (EEAS) did not publish the statement on its website. Asked why the High Representative did not sign it, her spokesperson replied today that her own statements and diplomatic outreach were complimentary to the joint statement by the foreign ministers.
