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Middle East conflict

Israeli actions in Gaza look like genocide, senior European Commission official says

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, proposed to cut off the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel

BRUSSELS, August 7. /TASS/. Israel's actions against the population in the Gaza Strip look like genocide to Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President.

"A concrete population is confined, with no homes — being destroyed — no food, water or medicines — being forbidden to access — and subject to bombing and shooting even when they are trying to get humanitarian aid. Any humanity is absent, and no witness[es] are allowed," she said in an interview with Politico.

The developments in the Gaza Strip look "very much like the definition used to express" the meaning of genocide, the politician continued as she proposed cutting off the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel. "What … has been said and done by the Israeli authorities go far beyond the international law limits," Ribera maintains.

According to Politico, the EU’s executive arm has so far avoided asserting that Israeli actions in the Palestinian enclave amount to genocide.

The situation in the Middle East deteriorated sharply after the penetration of armed supporters of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas from the Gaza Strip into the Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, accompanied by the killing of residents of border settlements and hostage-taking. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the enclave with the aim of destroying the military and political structures of Hamas and freeing all the abductees.

In March, Israel resumed hostilities in the enclave, inflicting massive strikes on it and interrupting a ceasefire regime established in January.

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Middle East conflict

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