THE head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell she left today to be understood that the US should deliver less weapons to Israel if they believe too many people have been killed on the Palestinian side.

“If one believes that so many people have been killed, perhaps one should provide fewer weapons to prevent the deaths of so many people. Doesn’t that make sense?’ Borrell told reporters, noting “If the international community believes that this is a massacre, that too many people are being killed, maybe we should think about providing weapons.”

The European top official was referring to a statement made last Friday by US President Joe Biden who called the Israeli retaliatory operation against Hamas “excessive”. “I think, as you know, that the retaliation in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, is excessive,” Biden told reporters at the White House, criticizing — in an extremely rare occurrence — Israel.

“Everyone is going to Tel Aviv begging, saying ‘please don’t do this’, protect the civilians, don’t kill so many people,” Borrell stressed after the meeting of EU development ministers. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t listen nobody”, he underlined.

They will “evacuate” the Palestinians. “Where; On the moon?” asked the head of EU diplomacy, referring to the military offensive by Israeli forces in the southern part of the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have gathered.

Earlier today an appeals court in the Netherlands ordered the government to suspend all exports of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel over concerns they are being used in violations of international law in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Israel’s air and ground attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip have left 28,340 dead, the vast majority of them civilians, according to Hamas’ health ministry, which has counted 164 deaths in the past 24 hours. At the same time, more than 2.3 million inhabitants of the enclave have been displaced by the war. Israel’s offensive was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attacks in southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.

Ending support to UNRWA would mean a “humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” Borrell says

“Ending support for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) would mean cutting off vital services to millions of people’ and ‘a greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza’he stated, at the same time, today the head of European diplomacy.

At the press conference, shortly after the end of the work of the informal Council of EU Development Ministers in Brussels, Josep Borrell stressed that the cessation of support to UNRWA would mean a “greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza, which must be avoided, not only because it is a humanitarian imperative, but because it would have dangerous implications for regional stability.”

Recalling that over 2 million people in the Gaza Strip, about 2 million in Jordan, half a million in Syria, another half a million in Lebanon and 900 thousand Palestinians in the West Bank depend on UNWRA’s aid, Z. Borel said: “If if this service were to disappear, it would have a devastating impact on 5.6 million people.” That is why, he added, “we should work for a solution that will make it possible to continue UNWRA’s assistance, not cancel it by making the problem worse.” The head of European diplomacy also noted that a few member states have decided to suspend their support to UNWRA, while others have decided to increase it and stressed: “It is an issue that divides the EU. But I think everyone agrees that its work UNRWA is something that cannot be interrupted.”

Also present at the informal EU Council that discussed the situation in the Middle East and in particular in the Gaza Strip was the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, who emphasized that “it is becoming increasingly difficult for the UN to operate in Rafah”. “The coming days will tell us whether or not we will be able to continue to operate in a highly changing environment,” he added.

“There is a deep sense of panic and anxiety about the prospect of a military operation in Rafah,” said F. Lazzarini. He added that “the price the civilian population has paid is unspeakable,” specifically stating that 5 percent of Gaza’s population of 2 million have either been killed, injured or are missing.

For her part, Belgium’s Minister of Development Caroline Guenes emphasized that Belgium has not yet received clarifications from Israel regarding the destruction of government buildings in Gaza at the end of last January.