EU’s Borrell urges world to impose solution to Gaza conflict
Israel kept bombing Gaza on Wednesday, killing more Palestinians in the Palestinian territory as EU’s Borrell urged world to ‘impose’ solution to the conflict.
The Israeli armed forces again bombed Gaza targets overnight, including in the crowded southern city of Rafah where eyewitnesses said survivors flocked to Al-Najjar Hospital to mourn the dead, including a child.
The health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday at least 22,313 people have been killed in nearly three months of Israel’s onslaught.
The toll includes 128 people killed over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while the fighting since October 7 has also wounded 57,296.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the international community had to “impose” a solution to the conflict.
“What we have learned over the last 30 years, and what we are learning now with the tragedy experienced in Gaza, is that the solution must be imposed from outside,” Borrell told diplomats in Portugal.
“Peace will only be achieved in a lasting manner if the international community gets involved intensely to achieve it and imposes a solution,” he said.
Borrell warned that a strike in Beirut on Tuesday that killed a senior Hamas leader was “an additional factor that can cause an escalation of the conflict”.
‘Unconscionable’ strikes on Red Crescent
The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday said he deplored the strikes on the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Gaza, branding them “unconscionable”.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health must never be a target during conflicts, adding that Gazans were facing a “dire humanitarian catastrophe”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israel twice struck its headquarters in the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in “five casualties and three injuries” among displaced people who had sought refuge there and at a nearby hospital.
“Hospitals, ambulances, health workers, and people seeking care must be protected, at all times, under international humanitarian law,” Tedros said.
“Today’s bombardments are unconscionable. Gaza’s health system is already on its knees, with health and aid workers continuously stymied in their efforts to save lives due to the hostilities.”
‘Provocative’ comments
Meanwhile, France on Wednesday described as “provocative” comments made by far-right Israeli ministers calling for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza and Jewish settlers to return to the besieged territory.
“France condemns the comments of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents” and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
His comments came the day after Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, adding that Israel should “encourage” the territory’s approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to leave.
The United States on Tuesday also denounced the ministers’ controversial comments as “inflammatory and irresponsible”.
The Israeli minister Ben-Gvir hit back at the US over its criticism.
“The United States is our best friend, but first of all we will do what is best for the State of Israel: the migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza will allow the (Israeli) residents of the envelope to return home and live in security and will protect the IDF (Israeli) soldiers,” the extreme-right minister posted on X late Tuesday.