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The EU will not “punish” Israel for its actions in Gaza and will “keep a close watch” on the country’s implementation of a recent agreement to improve the flow of aid in the strip, the bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a press conference following a meeting of the EU’s 27 ministers in Brussels.
The ministers were in Brussels to discuss an EU-Israel agreement brokered last week to increase the number of trucks and distribution of food entering Gaza as well as the opening of several other crossing points. They also examined an exhaustive list of 10 options, including the suspension of visa-free travel and the blocking of imports from the Jewish settlements, in response to Israel’s breach of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
“Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground,” Kallas told reporters, adding that Israel had already improved access and supplies of aid to Gaza. “The EU will keep a close watch on how Israel implements this common understanding and the pledges.”
“The aim is not to punish Israel, the aim is to improve the situation in Gaza,” Kallas added.
The bloc’s ambassadors will be tasked to update Israel’s compliance of the agreement every two weeks, Kallas said, and the EU would keep the 10 options “on the table” and “stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges”.
Last week, the Israeli military admitted a “technical error” following a strike that reportedly killed 10 people, including six children, near a Gaza water distribution point.
Some ministers expressed frustration at the lack of action against Israel. Following Tuesday’s meeting, Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon wrote on X that she regretted there hadn’t been “any consensus” during the meeting to follow up on the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
She added that an “agreement in principle” on improving humanitarian aid “can’t be used as an excuse to inaction”.
“We all have a responsibility to protect civilians,” she added.
Prior to the meeting on Tuesday, some ministers had also sent clear signs that they wanted to take concrete measures against Israel. Spain’s foreign affairs minister José Manuel Albares told reporters that in accordance with EU and international norms, his country would push for a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, an arms embargo to Israel and the ban of products from the Jewish settlements. “This war needs to end, and the Israeli army needs to withdraw,” Albares said.
His French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot also said France would be ready to take sanctions targeted at “individuals and entities that are responsible for the extremist and violent colonisation” in the West Bank and to “stop any direct and indirect financial support to the colonisation”.
