EU pressure up; 40 representatives demand sanctions against Israeli authorities
DID Press: Lawmakers from 14 EU countries insist on holding the Israeli regime led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for actions that grossly violate the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.
A group of 40 members of the European Parliament called on the European Union to impose sanctions against the Israeli authorities and suspend the trade agreement, Euronews TV channel reported quoting a joint statement of the parliamentarians.
They demanded that Brussels take decisive action in connection with the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The representatives are reportedly directly calling for the imposition of sanctions against the Israeli authorities, as well as for the suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel.
The document, which entered into force in 2000, grants the Jewish state trade privileges and access to some European financing programs.
The parliamentarians call for a swift action in response to the atrocities in Gaza and stress that the time of moral cowardice is over.
They address their concerns to both the European Commission and the EU member states, which must respond more decisively to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Swedish deputy Evin Incir said in a comment to Euronews.
On Monday, El Pa·s reported that the European Commission is considering a partial suspension of the association agreement with Israel amid the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
According to it, Brussels will study the proposal to suspend participation of the Jewish state in the Horizon Europe research program. As reported, this measure is one of the mildest among the 10 options previously proposed to the union’s foreign ministers by chief of the European diplomacy Kaja Kallas.
Earlier, the UN World Food Program reported that the key indicators of food consumption in the Gaza Strip have reached their worst levels since escalation of the conflict in October 2023.
According to the international monitoring initiative “Integrated Food Security Phase Classification” (IPC), 39% of the enclave’s residents are forced to starve for several days in a row, over 500,000 people – almost a quarter of the Gaza population – live in conditions close to hunger