Britain and 24 Western allies, including Australia, Canada, France, and Italy, said in a joint statement Monday that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza “must end now,� arguing civilians’ suffering has “reached new depths.�
The statement — which also denounced Israel’s plan to create a “humanitarian city” in Gaza’s south, as well as settler activity in the West Bank, while calling for the release of the hostages — came at a time of continued reports of mass casualty events in the vicinity of aid distribution sites, and of rising malnutrition that UNRWA has said affects some one-tenth of Gaza’s children. It also came as hostage-truce negotiations with Hamas have ground on, without any apparent breakthrough, despite expanded military operations.
Israel rejected the statement, saying it “sends the wrong message to Hamas.”
In the statement, the nations’ foreign ministers wrote that “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability, and deprives Gazans of human dignity.”
Near-daily mass-casualty events have been reported in the vicinity of the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution sites, as Israeli troops have used live fire in attempts to control the crowds. The GHF has blamed Hamas for some of the violence, and similar scenes have been reported at sites that are run by other aid organizations.
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,â€� said Monday’s statement, calling it “horrifyingâ€� that “over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.â€�
Israel has acknowledged deaths near aid sites and has confirmed that troops have fired warning shots when crowds have gotten too close, but has said the death tolls, which mostly come from Hamas-run authorities, are exaggerated.
“The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law,â€� said the statement, calling on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life-saving work safely and effectively.”
Israel has criticized the UN’s aid mechanisms as vulnerable to exploitation by Hamas, saying the terror group seizes aid and uses it to sustain itself and consolidate its control over parts of the Strip. The GHF said Monday that it has repeatedly offered to work together with the UN, but the UN has refused, saying that to do so would violate humanitarian principles.
The Monday communiqué was signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, as well as the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management.
It also called for the “immediate and unconditional releaseâ€� of the “hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 [who] continue to suffer terribly,” and asserted: “A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.”
The statement also condemned Israel’s proposal to build a “humanitarian city� on the ruins of southern Gaza’s Rafah.
“Proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a ‘humanitarian city’ are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law,” it said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz floated a plan earlier this month to build a “city� on the ruins of Rafah that would eventually contain all of the Strip’s residents; they would not be allowed to leave during ongoing fighting, as the IDF would operate against Hamas throughout the rest of the enclave.
The military reportedly opposes the plan as “unworkable,� and it has been panned by Israeli opposition figures as “crazy, even by this government’s standards.�
The diplomats also objected to “any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,â€� singling out plans for the controversial E1 area in the West Bank as a “flagrant breach of international law,” and denouncing the surge of attacks on Palestinians by violent West Bank settlers, who have gone mostly unpunished.
“We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” the statement said, affirming support for the US, Qatar, and Egypt, which have served as mediators in ongoing hostage-ceasefire negotiations.
“We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and the entire region,� the foreign ministers concluded, without elaborating.
Israel rejected the statement, with the Foreign Ministry writing in a statement that it “is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas.â€� It also asserted that “all statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas, which started this war and is prolonging it.â€�
The terror group has “stubbornly� refused the latest ceasefire proposal, which Israel agreed to, is “running a campaign to spread lies about Israel� and “deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid,� the ministry added.
“The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas … At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind,� it said.
While several European allies — including Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia did not sign the document — German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday that he had spoken on the phone with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and expressed his “greatest concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation, especially in light of the expansion of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.â€�
The war in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Some 20 living hostages remain in terror groups’ captivity in Gaza, alongside the bodies of 28 who are confirmed dead, and two about whom there are grave concerns. One of the slain hostages is an Israeli soldier who was killed in 2014. The rest are civilians and soldiers abducted during the October 7 invasion.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.