The 27 EU nations have jointly condemned Hamas for what they described as the use of hospitals and civilians as “human shields” in the war against Israel.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell yesterday said that at the same time, the bloc asked Israel “for maximum restraint in targeting in order to avoid human casualties.”
At a meeting of the bloc’s foreign affairs ministers, Borrell brandished a statement he issued on behalf of the 27 nations as a show of unity following weeks of often contrasting statements on how the group should address the Israel-Hamas war.
Photo: AFP
Only hours after EU leaders professed unity over the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 28, the member states were totally split in a vote on a UN General Assembly resolution calling for humanitarian truces in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
Now, however, the EU nations said in a statement they join “calls for immediate pauses in hostilities and the establishment of humanitarian corridors, including through increased capacity at border crossings and through a dedicated maritime route, so that humanitarian aid can safely reach the population of Gaza.”
They also reiterated their “call on Hamas for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. It is crucial that the International Committee of the Red Cross is granted access to the hostages.”
Moreover, as a key tenent, it said that “the EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas.”
In Gaza, thousands of people have fled its largest hospital as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants battle outside its gates, but hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies at risk of dying because of a power blackout, remained inside, health officials said yesterday.
With only intermittent communications, it was difficult to reconcile competing claims from the Israeli military, which said it was providing safe corridors for people to escape intense fighting in the north and move south, and Palestinian health officials inside Shifa Hospital, who said the compound was surrounded by constant heavy gunfire.
The Israeli military also said it had placed 300 liters of fuel near the hospital to help power its generators, but that Hamas militants had prevented staff from reaching it.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza disputed that and said the fuel would have provided less than an hour of electricity.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media that Shifa has been without water for three days and “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.”
In other developments, at least eight pro-Iran fighters were killed in US strikes on eastern Syria, a war monitor said yesterday.
The toll is “eight pro-Iran fighters dead, including at least one Syrian, and Iraqi nationals,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, following the strikes late on Sunday on the Mayadeen and Albu Kamal areas of Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province near the Iraqi border.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US had carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria in response to attacks on US forces.
It was the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS