EU Officials Call For Humanitarian Pause For Humanitarian Aid Distribution And Hostage Release

Josep Borrell. (Wikimedia Commons/European Parliament)

JAKARTA - The EU's main diplomat (EU) called for a humanitarian break for the distribution of aid to the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of hostages to defuse the escalation in the region, as the alliance's foreign ministers will discuss the situation at Monday's meeting.

EU Head of Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said the importance of increasing and accelerating aid supplies reached Gaza, due to Israel's relentless blockade and bombings presented a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.

"The most important thing is to call for humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza," Borrell said.

"We, the European Union, have increased our support, but there are queues and queues of trucks waiting to enter. They have to come in and they have to carry the much-needed items," Borrell stressed.

Borrell further stressed the need for fuel supply, so that the "power plant and desalination station" in the Gaza Strip can function.

In addition, he also said the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during an attack on Israeli territory on October 7, must be released immediately.

"This is part of every step towards deescalation. And we have to start thinking about how to revive the political process," he exclaimed.

It is known that two convoys of humanitarian aid, each consisting of 20 and 14 trucks, arrived in Gaza via Rafah, Egypt on Saturday and Sunday, according to Palestinian authorities, Egypt and the UN agency.

However, human rights groups warn that more efforts are needed to deal with disasters that occur in Gaza, where more than 2 million people run out of drinking water and are at risk of starvation.

In addition, hospitals face severe supply shortages and, in some cases, are forced to use ice cream trucks as morgues to address the large number of deaths.

It is known, Israel has completely blockaded food, water and fuel to Gaza over the past two weeks. Amnesty International assessed that Israel's collective punishment of Palestinian civilians was a war crime.