An Israeli attack on Rafah would be “completely unacceptable”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said, according to POLITICO.
Asked whether an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza city would be a “red line” and lead to EU sanctions against Israel, von der Leyen said:
I’m never drawing red lines, but I think it would be completely unacceptable if [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu would invade.
The Commission chairwoman, who is running for a second term, made the remarks at a debate organised by POLITICO in Maastricht.
Von der Leyen also said the Commission would “sit down at the negotiating table with our member states and take appropriate measures” if Israel invaded Rafah.
Asked how she proposes to end the war in Gaza, von der Leyen said she has always defended Israel’s right to self-defence, while calling on Israeli leaders to act within the framework of humanitarian and international law.
Von der Leyen said she had visited Rafah and found it “unbearable” and “unacceptable” how many “innocent civilians” and “especially children” were being killed. She called for a ceasefire, a two-state solution and the release of hostages held by Hamas. She said:
This is the only solution that will bring peace to the region.
Israel is threatening to invade Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than half of Gaza’s population has taken refuge after being forced to flee the north due to fighting.
Israel suffered an unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023. Hamas fighters then infiltrated the border areas, opening fire on military and civilians, taking more than 240 hostages. According to the authorities, about 1,200 people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military operation in the Gaza Strip, and also announced a complete blockade of the enclave: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine were stopped. According to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, more than 34 thousand people were killed, more than 77 thousand people suffered.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to accept an Israeli ceasefire offer in talks seen as the last chance to reach a deal before the Rafah incursion. On Sunday, President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu in a phone call not to launch an operation in the territory.
Walter Baier, a spokesman for the Party of the European Left, said he found it “simply ridiculous to hear from a representative of a far-right party who holds himself out as a defender against anti-Semitism.”
In the Maastricht debate, Anders Vistisen of the far-right group Identity and Democracy avoided the topic of sanctions and instead said that the EU’s “primary responsibility” was to “fight the rise in anti-Semitism that we are seeing across the European continent as a result of this conflict.”
