THE Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and his Palestinian counterpart Riyadh al-Maliki were invited to participate today in an emergency meeting of European foreign ministers following the Hamas attack on Israel, the EU announced.

The announcement was made on X (formerly Twitter) by EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell from Muscat, capital of the sultanate of Oman, where he is with many European ministers.

He convened a meeting which is expected to be held this afternoon in a hybrid format.

The two ministers accepted Mr Borrell’s invitation, his services said.

THE European Union condemned since Saturday “unequivocally” the attacks of the Islamist movement Hamas and underlined that Israel has “the right to defend itself”. The EU also called for the release of civilians held hostage in violation of international law.

Today, Borrell told X that he reiterated the conviction during a conversation he had yesterday, Monday night, with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

“Nothing can justify such shameful acts of terrorism and nothing can justify supporting them,” he added.