Ursula von der Leyen (Reuters)
As a full month of raging war between Israel and Hamas unfolds, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has revealed that the deployment of international forces under the supervision of the United Nations in the besieged Gaza Strip is among the the options taken into consideration.
International forces in Gaza
He added that the deployment of forces to control the situation in Gaza has become one of the options under discussion.
During her speech at the European Union’s annual conference of ambassadors, the European official stressed that there is only one place for a Palestinian Authority and a Palestinian state.
He also stressed that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian Authority territories, stressing that there is no room for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and vice versa.
He explained that displacement increases regional instability.
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She also believed that China should use its influence on Hamas and Iran to calm tensions in the Middle East, as she put it.
Von der Leyen said all of Beijing’s influence over Hamas and Iran must be used to avoid escalation.
Cease fire immediately
Interestingly, officials from key UN agencies issued a rare joint statement on Monday in which they expressed their anger at the number of civilian casualties in Gaza, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The heads of UN agencies wrote: “For almost a month, the world has watched the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories with shock and horror at the (growing) number of lives lost and destroyed,” according to the Agence France-Presse.
Officials from 18 organizations, including UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, also expressed regret at the number of deaths in the war.
They also added in their statement that in Gaza “an entire population is being besieged and attacked, deprived of access to (items) necessary for survival, and (residents) are being bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship . . This is unacceptable.”
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They added that more food, water, medicine and fuel must be allowed into the Gaza Strip to help the population, stressing: “We need an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons. 30 days have passed. This is enough. This must stop now.”
They called on Hamas to release more than 240 hostages kidnapped and transferred to the Gaza Strip on October 7, urging each side to respect its obligations under international law.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack in which its members infiltrated Israeli military bases across the separation wall and attacked settlements on the Gaza Strip border, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly of whom were civilians, and taking 240 hostages, according to Israeli data. authority.
Since then, Israel has responded with intense bombing of the Gaza Strip and with ground operations that have expanded since late October, resulting in the deaths of around 10,000 people so far, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. .