Palestinian state ‘best guarantee’ for Israel’s security, Borrell says

The creation of a Palestinian state would be the best way of ensuring Israel’s security, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said after the bloc’s foreign ministers on Monday (20 November) met virtually on the current situation in Gaza.

The virtual talks followed Borrell’s five-day trip to the Middle East, where he visited Israel and the West Bank, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan.

In written remarks to the press after the talks, Borrell said that he had drawn “a fundamental political conclusion” from his discussions across the region.

“I think that the best guarantee for Israel’s security is the creation of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“Despite the huge challenges, we have to advance our reflections on the stabilisation of Gaza and the future Palestinian state,” he added.

Last week, Borrell outlined some ideas for an EU draft roadmap looking into the future after the fighting ends, the initial elements of which were discussed among EU foreign ministers.

EU maps out draft framework for post-conflict Gaza

With Israeli forces now deep inside Gaza, some two weeks after the start of a ground operation to destroy the Islamist movement Hamas, EU foreign ministers on Monday (13 November) started looking into what the future may look like after the fighting ends.

Among the conditions was the requirement for Israel not to occupy Gaza after the current conflict ends and that control of the territory should be handed over to ‘a’ Palestinian Authority.

In the short-term, Borrell said, after visiting a string of Arab states, there was a “sense of urgency” over the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate humanitarian pauses is a big step forward, but we must ensure its rapid implementation,” he said.

In Monday’s discussion, EU foreign ministers also addressed the possibility of the conflict further enflaming the volatile situation in the West Bank and dragging in other regional actors.

“In light of increased extremists and settlers’ violence against Palestinians, there is a real risk that the situation could escalate,” Borrell said.

“Reports of a ship hijacked by the Houthis are another worrying signal of a risk of the regional spillover,” he said.

The EU’s chief diplomat also announced he had tasked the EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS) to develop options regarding the future of post-war Gaza, which is meant to be discussed by the bloc’s foreign ministers when they meet next month in Brussels.

The December meeting “will allow us to take stock again and focus particularly on the stabilisation of Gaza” and “the revitalisation of the two-state solution,” Borrell said.

Palestinian aid review

The continued flurry of EU diplomacy comes as the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said civilians in Gaza faced the “immediate possibility of starvation” due to the lack of food supplies.

Israel has vowed to destroy Gaza’s rulers Hamas after the Palestinian militant group carried out the deadliest attack in the country’s history on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed and around 240 taken hostage, according to government officials.

In Gaza, 13,000 people, mainly civilians and more than 5,000 of them children, have been killed by Israel’s military response, according to numbers reported by the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry.

The EU is the largest external donor to Gaza and the occupied West Bank, with €1.2 billion budgeted between 2021 and 2024, providing a financial lifeline to development organisations supporting Palestinians through about 100 projects.

The European Commission’s College of Commissioners is set to approve the continued payment of development aid to the Palestinian territories on Tuesday (22 November) after an internal audit found that its funding was not inadvertently financing terror groups.

The EU’s executive had announced on 9 October it would suspend development aid to Palestinians, only to backtrack later the same day after EU countries complained it had overstepped the mark.

The audit found no evidence of EU financial support having been diverted to terror groups, but it recommends stricter oversight for future payments, according to several EU officials briefed on its contents.

A review approval would mean the first payment of non-humanitarian aid to Palestinian recipients since the Israel-Hamas war began last month can take place as planned by the end of November.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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