The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, confirmed on Wednesday that “the Riyadh track is the most appropriate framework for coordinating positions on Palestine.”
An Al Arabiya correspondent reported “a European invitation to the Arab countries to form a joint committee to support the Palestinian Authority.”
On April 29, the ministerial committee assigned by the joint extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit on developments in the Gaza Strip, foreign ministers and representatives of European countries met in Riyadh, to discuss the urgent need to end the war in Gaza and take the necessary steps to implement the two-state solution.
The meeting expressed its support for efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire, release prisoners and hostages, end the war in Gaza and all illegal unilateral actions and violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, as well as address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis. At the same time, the importance of moving to a political path to reach a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was stressed.
In light of this, concrete steps towards establishing a Palestinian state were discussed in the context of the two-state solution. The urgent need to take such steps and the importance of coordinating positions was emphasized. The meeting also discussed the issue of recognition of the Palestinian state by countries that have not yet done so, and the timing and context of this recognition.
On May 27, Borrell announced that he had received the green light from Union ministers to reactivate the border mission with Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Borrell said the border mission would need the support of Egypt, the Palestinians and Israel.
The Arab Ministerial Committee had presented a vision before the European Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels that calls for a ceasefire and leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state and resolving final status issues within 6 months.
The Arab Paper stipulated a comprehensive package of steps to achieve a ceasefire and move towards the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to adopt the presence of international peacekeeping forces by a Security Council decision.
The Arab paper called for the Palestinian security establishment to assume its duties in the Gaza Strip under one authority, one weapon, and one law.
On the field, Palestinian residents and medics said that Israeli tanks, supported by warplanes and drones, penetrated further into the west of the city of Rafah on Wednesday, killing 8 people.
Residents reported that tanks entered five neighborhoods after midnight, and that the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area in the western Gaza Strip were subjected to heavy shelling and gunfire.
There are no signs of stopping fighting in the war that has been going on for nearly 8 months, with international mediators unable to convince Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.
Six weeks after it defied its allies and attacked Rafah, Israel is close to achieving its goals in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which it says was the last stronghold of Hamas, according to Israeli officials and analysts who told the American “Washington Post”, raising the possibility that the cessation of major military operations would give way. The scope for a new, less intense phase of the conflict.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated basic principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
In a report evaluating 6 Israeli attacks that resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the Commission stated that Israeli forces “may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautionary measures in the attack.”
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