The EU calls for restraint to contain tensions after the visit of Ben Gvir to the Esplanade of the Mosques

BRUSSELS, Jan. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The European Commission has called on all actors to show “restraint” and avoid a “further escalation” of tensions in Israel after Israel’s new Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, party leader far-right Otzma Yehudit, has visited the Esplanade of the Mosques on Tuesday, which provoked criticism from the Palestinian Authority and other countries.

Hours after the minister’s visit, which Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, described as “intrusion” and “criminal behavior”, the Israeli Army denounced the launch of a rocket from the Palestinian enclave into southern Israel. .

“We are closely following not only what is happening on the ground but also the first steps of the new Israeli government, with which we hope to cooperate based on our shared values,” the spokesman for the European Commission on Foreign Affairs, Peter Stano, who added that such cooperation will be adjusted based on the actions of the new government.

In this sense, Stano has recalled the importance of preserving the ‘status quo’ of sacred places and has underlined the “concern” of the European Union (EU) before “the actions that go against it”.

Thus, in the face of what he has described as a “dangerous increase in tensions and victims in recent weeks”, he has appealed for “everyone to reduce tension” to “avoid contributing to a further escalation” of the conflict. “De-escalation is what is needed, as well as avoiding any action and provocation that feeds these tensions and contributes to increasing them,” he stressed.