BRUSSELS
\nIsrael\u2019s plan to destroy Islamist Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is not working and the European Union must pursue efforts to create a \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d despite Israeli opposition, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister had on Sunday reaffirmed a hard line against any Palestinian state as it would pose \u201can existential danger\u201d to Israel. He said Israel would keep insisting on full security control over all territory west of the Jordan River, which would include Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
\nBorrell spoke at the monthly gathering of EU foreign ministers, attended this time by counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan and the Arab League secretary-general.
\nThe talks will focus mainly on the consequences of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive in Gaza.
\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki were making separate appearances at the meeting, which was also taking stock of the war in Ukraine.
\nAlluding to Israel\u2019s stated objective of annihilating Hamas in its devastating three-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, Borrell told reporters: \u201cWhat are the other solutions they have in mind. Make all the Palestinians leave? Kill all of them?…The way they are destroying Hamas is not the way to do it. They are sealing the hate for generations.\u201d
\nBorrell said he wanted to press ahead with international efforts to create a process that would lead to a Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel. The last talks to that end collapsed a decade ago amid mutual mistrust and intransigence.
\nIsrael\u2019s massive aerial and ground offensive in small, densely populated Gaza has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run enclave\u2019s health authorities, flattened built-up areas and left most of its 2.3 million people homeless.
\nIsrael has said the war could go on for \u201cmany months\u201d and it would not rest until Hamas was eradicated, all Israeli hostages freed and the Gaza Strip posed no more security threat.
\n\u201cWe have engaged in over 30 years of process and look where that has got us,\u201d Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters, referring to intermittent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks since the 1990s.
\n\u201cA moment of truth is upon us. Do we allow a radical racist agenda to dictate the future or come together and say the path is clear, we want peace for everybody and a two-state solution is the only path, go ahead and implement it?\u201d
\nIn brief remarks to reporters, Israeli foreign minister Katz said he was in Brussels to discuss the issue of hostages held by Hamas and to reaffirm that Israel would dismantle Hamas and restore its national security. He took no questions.
\nAhead of the Brussels meeting, the EU\u2019s diplomatic service sent a discussion paper to its 27 member countries, suggesting a roadmap to peace in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
\nAt the heart of the plan is a call for a \u201cpreparatory peace conference\u201d to be organised by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, with the United States and United Nations also invited to be conveners of the gathering.
\nThe conference would go ahead even if Israelis or Palestinians declined to take part. But both parties would be consulted at every step of the talks as delegates sought to draw up a peace plan, the document suggests.
\nThe internal document, seen by multiple news organisations including Reuters, makes clear one key goal of a peace plan should be the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, \u201cliving side by side with Israel in peace and security\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS Israel\u2019s plan to destroy Islamist Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is not working and the European Union must pursue efforts to create a \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d despite Israeli opposition, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister had on Sunday reaffirmed a hard line against any Palestinian state as it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n