Key Points
- EU leaders have made a strong and unified call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- US resolution on immediate Gaza ceasefire to go to UN Security Council vote.
- Antony Blinken is in Cairo for ceasefire talks aimed at easing Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
EU leaders have issued their first joint demand for a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of all hostages in Gaza in a joint summit statement.
The statement called for “an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire” and repeated condemnations of the attacks by Hamas against Israel on 7 October.
In the aftermath of the attacks, EU leaders together only managed to call for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” in Gaza to allow aid to reach Palestinian civilians.
European Council President Charles Michel called the statement “strong and unified” on X, formerly Twitter.
Ireland, Spain and Belgium pushed for the ceasefire at the summit in Brussels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed to the calls after previously opposing a ceasefire in October, citing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Hamas.
The EU leaders’ demand for a ceasefire in Gaza repeated a call from their foreign ministers that Hungary, viewed as sympathetic to the Israeli government, abstained on.
EU leaders also called on Israel not to go ahead with a planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres joined talks in Brussels and urged the EU to support a ceasefire. He warned that civilian casualties in Gaza like in Ukraine must be condemned “without double standards.”
People flee as smoke rises above buildings near the al-Shifa hospital compound and its vicinity during Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on Thursday. Source: Getty / AFP
US exerts more pressure on Israel with Gaza ceasefire resolution
Israel’s spy chief was due to travel to Qatar on Friday for ceasefire negotiations while the US planned to put a resolution calling for an immediate truce in Gaza to a vote of the UN Security Council, intensifying pressure on its ally.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday in Cairo he believed talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt could still reach a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
Negotiations in Qatar centred on a truce of around six weeks that would allow the release of 40 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, paving the way for more aid to enter an enclave where famine looms due to extreme food shortages.
“Negotiators continue to work. The gaps are narrowing, and we’re continuing to push for an agreement in Doha. There’s still difficult work to get there. But I continue to believe it’s possible,” Blinken said.
The main sticking point has been that Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.
A statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s spy chief David Barnea would travel to Qatar on Friday to meet mediators.
Meanwhile, in Gaza itself, Israel’s the only partially working medical facility in the north of the Strip, for a fourth day, and local residents said they had seen buildings in flames inside the complex.
Food shortages affect 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and in some areas exceed , according to the United Nations.
“We’re pressing for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages. That would bring immediate relief to so many people who are suffering in Gaza — the children, the women, the men,” Blinken told the Arabic broadcaster Al Hadath.
He said the US had drafted a resolution at the United Nations to that effect.
Ceasefire talks resumed this week in after Israel rejected a Hamas proposal last week.
The sides are discussing a truce of about six weeks that would allow the release of 40 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.
However, Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of an agreement that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.
“I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken told Al Hadath.
“The Israeli team is present, has authority to reach an agreement.”
Near al-Shifa, residents told the Reuters news agency via a chat app that the army had blown up houses close by as buildings in the hospital complex burned.
Israel said its troops had killed more than 50 Hamas gunmen over the previous day, taking the number of fighters killed around the hospital to 140.
Smoke plumes billow after Israeli bombardment over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Source: Getty / Said Khkatib
It said it had found terrorist infrastructure and weapons in and around the facility, showing images of AK-47 automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other artillery.
Military spokesperson rear admiral Daniel Hagari said “many Hamas terrorists — operatives and senior ones” had been hiding in the hospital.
Hamas denied the hospital harboured militants and said those killed were wounded patients and displaced people.
Video released by Hamas showed its militants outside the al-Shifa compound, carrying weapons and firing on Israeli tanks in streets reduced to rubble.
The position of the buildings and outline matched satellite imagery checked by Reuters.
Officials are pushing for an end to six months of fighting that has killed almost 32,000 Palestinians, with 65 killed in the previous 24 hours, according to Gaza health authorities.
The war was triggered by militants from Hamas, which controls Gaza, storming into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
