Borrell accuses Israel and Hamas of “pretending” to be interested in a ceasefire in Gaza

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BRUSSELS, September 10 () –

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, accused Israel and Hamas on Tuesday of “pretending” to be interested in a ceasefire in Gaza, after lamenting that they are delaying an agreement in negotiations led by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

Visiting Egypt, where he met with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati, he expressed the EU’s full support for Cairo’s initiative for a ceasefire in the Strip, 11 months into the Israeli offensive, assuring that European diplomacy will continue to lend its support.

However, he regretted that the parties do not want to end hostilities and are merely “pretending” to be interested in the negotiations. “A ceasefire that has been announced so many times; we have almost achieved it, but we have not achieved it. Why? Very simple: because those who are waging war have no interest in ending it,” he said.

According to Borrell, Israel and Hamas are “pretending” to be interested in ending the conflict, although he added that “they are pretending less and less.” “Their intransigence is accompanied by total impunity and their actions have no consequences,” he said.

REPORTS LATEST ATTACK WITH 40 PALESTINIANS DEAD

In any case, the head of EU diplomacy has contrasted the attempts to mediate a ceasefire with the continued Israeli campaign against the Palestinian enclave, after at least 40 Palestinians were killed and nearly 60 others were injured in an Israeli army bombardment against the “humanitarian zone” in the south of the Strip.

“Bad news keeps coming. I cannot stop speaking out against this kind of thing. War always has laws. It is hard to believe that these laws of war are being followed,” he said of the latest episode in Gaza, in another criticism of Israel, a country he will not visit as part of this tour of the Middle East.

In another attack on the Israeli authorities, Borrell denounced the lack of respect for the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that asked Israel to take measures to avoid a genocide in Gaza. “A flagrant violation of international law continues to be ignored. If the ICJ rulings are totally ignored, then what is the solution? And who can we trust?” he said.