Al-Haq Europe expresses deep concern over the statement issued on 10 July 2015 by EU High Representative/Vice President Kaja Kallas. The emphasis placed on the possibility of increased humanitarian access to Gaza – framed by the EU as “significant steps” by Israel – is both politically and legally indefensible. It reflects an alarming trend in EU policy to substitute humanitarian optics for legal accountability and States fulfilment of their binding legal obligations.

Al-Haq Europe reminds the EU that the provision of humanitarian aid is not optional nor a gesture of goodwill. It is not a discretionary act to be praised, but a binding obligation under international humanitarian law. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), after finding it plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, already mandated Israel to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid in each of its three Orders on Provisional Measures.

In this context, to present actions such as opening crossing points, enabling the distribution of food, resuming fuel deliveries, providing water and power, or protecting aid workers as a sign of “progress” not only risks rewarding Israel for minimal compliance – all while it continues to advance its genocidal campaign and destruction of Gaza – but also obscures the gravity of Israel’s ongoing crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare. 

In light of the upcoming EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meeting (scheduled on 15 July 2025), where EU Foreign Ministers will decide on how to respond to Israel’s ongoing violations of human rights under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Al-Haq Europe warns that false promises of compliance with international law must not be mistaken for progress, nor substituted for EU action grounded in binding international and EU law. In fact, as Israel engages in what Kallas describes as “constructive dialogue”, Israel’s Minister of Defence, Israel Katz, has instructed the military to bring forward plans to confine all Palestinians in Gaza in a so-called “humanitarian city” in the ruins of Rafah – an area which they would not be allowed to leave. This plan would first involve forcibly transferring around 600,000 displaced Palestinians from Al-Mawasi, before eventually confining the over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza in what effectively amounts to a concentration camp designed to destroy the population. Katz envisages this genocidal plan, involving the forcible transfer and unlawful confinement of the Palestinian people – constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity – as being carried out during the two-month ceasefire currently being negotiated.

It is also important to note that by isolating the humanitarian situation in Gaza as the focus of its response, especially ahead of the next FAC meeting, the EU demonstrates its willful ignorance  as to the clear, and explicitly outlined, annexationist goals of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime. Further, it turns a blind eye to the array of  international crimes being committed in the occupied West Bank, which has witnessed unprecedented levels of settlement expansion, forced displacement, and violence at the hands of both illegal settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces. Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, maintained and expanded through the aforementioned policies of widespread and systematic forced displacement of Palestinians, population transfer through settlement expansion and settler violence, and destruction of civilian infrastructure including in refugee camps are all carried out in pursuant of a single aim: Palestinian erasure.

The EU has already recognised in Council conclusions that Israel’s actions violate Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which requires respect for human rights as an essential element. Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza  and de jure annexation in the West Bank, requires the immediate termination of the Association Agreement. Anything less would expose the EU’s willingness to set an extraordinarily low bar for what it deems to be acceptable behaviour in the face of atrocity crimes. Anything less would normalise and endorse Israel’s ongoing and egregious violations of the most fundamental provisions of international law.  

The EU and its 27 Member States must comply with their obligations under both international law and the legal framework of the EU. We therefore reiterate our urgent calls to the EU and its Member States to:

1. Highlight the prolonged systematic violations of international law that are not solely contingent upon, or unrelated to, humanitarian aid;
2. Vote for the immediate termination of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, including all economic, trade and institutional cooperation;
3. Outline and implement concrete follow-up measures for Member States, in line with their legal obligations, which include: imposing a full arms embargo on Israel; cooperating with accountability mechanisms; sanctioning Israeli institutions, officials, and settlers and prosecuting them for the array of international crimes they continue to commit; and ending all exploitation of Palestinian maritime resources and energy deals with Israel, including terminating the Great Sea Interconnector;
4. Uphold their obligations under the Genocide Convention and the 2004 and 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinions, by ceasing all forms of complicity with Israel’s illegal occupation and genocide and severing all diplomatic, political, and financial ties with Israel.