MADRID, May 6. /TASS/. European Council President Antonio Costa has stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to eliminate any possibility of achieving a two-state solution to resolve the Middle East conflict.

"Europe must be unequivocally clear," Costa said in an interview with Spain’s Cadena SER radio station. According to him, it is essential to denounce Israel’s violation of international law and to advocate for the two-state solution, under which Palestine, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, should exist alongside Israel as an independent state within the 1967 borders.

That said, Costa believes that Netanyahu "is working to eliminate the viable possibility of the two states coexisting" because he "continues to destroy Gaza."

On March 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip, launching massive strikes on the enclave and thus breaking the ceasefire established in January. Netanyahu’s office stated that Israel had restarted military operations in the enclave after the Gaza-based Palestinian movement Hamas rejected the US proposals put forward by mediators and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. The office claimed that the Israeli military had resumed strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza to advance the release of hostages and that the army would intensify its campaign in the enclave. According to the latest data from the Israeli side, currently 24 hostages and bodies of 35 captives are still being held in the enclave. The Gaza-based movement has blamed the United States for the renewal of Israeli aggression.