EU, Israel Discuss Gaza Aid Deal       07/15 06:20

   

   BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union is seeking updates from Israel on 
implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to 
Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief.

   Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting Tuesday in 
Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and 
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar.

   Saar met with EU leaders on Monday after agreeing last week allow 
desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people 
who have endured more than 21 months of war.

   "We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the 
situation on the ground, but it's not about the paper, but actually 
implementation of the paper," Kallas said before the meeting of the Foreign 
Affairs Council.

   "As long as it hasn't really improved, then we haven't all done enough," she 
said, before calling for a ceasefire.

   Kallas said the ministers will also discuss Iran's nuclear program, concerns 
over developments in Georgia and Moldova, and new sanctions on Russia. The EU 
is readying its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, with holdouts within the 
bloc arguing over the keystone policy of capping oil prices to cut into 
Moscow's energy revenues.

   European nations like Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have increasingly 
called for the EU's ties with Israel to be reassessed in the wake of the war in 
Gaza.

   A report by the European Commission found " indications " that Israel's 
actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement 
governing its ties with the EU -- but the block is divided over what to do in 
response.

   That public pressure over Israel's conduct in Gaza made the new humanitarian 
deal possible even before a ceasefire, said Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign 
minister. "That force of the 27 EU member states is what I want to maintain 
now," he said.

   "The humanitarian deal announced last week shows that the Association 
Agreement review and use of EU leverage has worked," said one European diplomat.

   Spain's Foreign Minister Jos Manual Albares Bueno said details of the deal 
were still being discussed and that the EU would monitor results to see if 
Israel is complying with those.

   "We don't know whether it we will know how it works," he said. "It's very 
clear that this agreement is not the end -- we have to stop the war."

   The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing around 1,200 
people and taking 251 others hostage, most of whom have been released in 
earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more 
than 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according 
to Gaza's Health Ministry.

   The ministry, which is under Gaza's Hamas-run government, doesn't 
differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other 
international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on 
war casualties.

   The EU has observed some aid trucks entering Gaza, but "not enough," said 
Hajda Lahbib, the EU Commissioner for humanitarian air and crisis management.

   "The situation is still so dangerous, so violent, with strikes still 
continuing on the ground, that our humanitarian partners cannot operate. So, 
this is the reality we need to have a ceasefire," she said.