The European Union (EU) will provide another €50 million in humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, suffering due to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. This was stated on October 26 by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a press conference following the first day of the EU summit in Brussels.
“We will allocate an additional €50 million in humanitarian aid. Tomorrow, Friday, we will sign a contract for 40 million with UN agencies,” she said.
The head of the European Commission added that the remaining €10 million will be used to deliver humanitarian aid on Friday, October 27, on two flights through Egypt.
Earlier in the day, EU leaders at a summit in Brussels failed to agree on a call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but only called for a “humanitarian pause and the opening of humanitarian corridors” in the Gaza Strip.
Also, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the initiative to withdraw all children from the territory of the Gaza Strip can only be assessed positively. He emphasized that a humanitarian catastrophe is currently occurring in the Palestinian enclave. At the same time, Peskov noted that only two dozen trucks with aid were allowed through the Rafah checkpoint from Egyptian territory to the Gaza Strip, and this is too little.
The day before, on October 25, the UN Security Council (EU) did not adopt the Russian draft Middle East resolution, which took into account elements of the Brazilian draft that was not adopted last week. Great Britain and the USA opposed it. The Russian Federation and China also vetoed the American resolution. Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, explained this decision by saying that Washington proposed an extremely politicized project, full of inappropriate statements.
Earlier, on October 23, Al Arabiya, citing a source in the Egyptian government, reported on negotiations on the creation of a camp to assist refugees from the Gaza Strip in the city of Rafah, Palestinian enclave. One of the functions of such places should be the selection of people injured during strikes.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when the Hamas movement subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and also invaded border areas in the south of the country. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians intend to return the borders between the two countries that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War, with a possible exchange of territories. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses these terms.
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