An EU diplomatic service audit report, seen by Reuters and AFP, looked at Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
There are indications Israel may have breached its human rights obligations under the terms of a pact governing its ties with the European Union, a review of the agreement shows.<\/p>\n
According to an EU document seen by the Reuters and AFP news agencies on Friday, the European External Action Service said that Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza were likely not in line with rules laid out in the EU-Israel Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the basis of the assessments made by the independent international institutions \u2026 there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations,\u201d the audit drafted by the EU\u2019s diplomatic service read.<\/p>\n
The report comes after months of deepening concern in European capitals about Israel\u2019s operations in Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the enclave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s continued restrictions to the provision of food, medicines, medical equipment, and other vital supplies affect the entire population of Gaza present on the affected territory,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The document includes a section dedicated to the situation in Gaza \u2013 covering issues related to denial of humanitarian aid, attacks with a significant number of casualties, attacks on medical facilities, displacement and lack of accountability \u2013 as well as the situation in the occupied West Bank, including settler violence, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
The document said it relies on \u201cfacts verified by and assessments made by independent international institutions, and with a focus on most recent events in Gaza and the West Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n
The audit was launched last month in response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, in a push backed by 17 states and spearheaded by the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The EU\u2019s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, is expected to present the findings of the report to the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.<\/p>\n
EU-Israel agreement<\/p>\n
Under the EU-Israel agreement, which came into effect in 2000, the two parties agreed that their relationship would be based on \u201crespect for human rights and democratic principles\u201d.<\/p>\n
Suspending the agreement would require a unanimous decision from the bloc\u2019s 27 members, something diplomats have said from the beginning was virtually impossible.<\/p>\n
According to AFP, diplomats have said that they expect Kallas to propose options on a response to the report during the next foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is \u2026 how many member states would still be willing not to do anything and still keep on saying that it\u2019s business as usual,\u201d an unnamed diplomat told the news agency ahead of the review\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important to not fall into the trap of Israel to look somewhere else,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The EU is Israel\u2019s largest commercial partner, with 42.6 billion euros ($48.2bn) in goods traded in 2024. Trade in services reached 25.6 billion euros ($29.5bn) in 2023.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s mission to the EU did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the contents of the document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An EU diplomatic service audit report, seen by Reuters and AFP, looked at Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[41776,2000,299,5187,1699,2194,4582,13642,837,7424,839,12,54009],"class_list":{"0":"post-200861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-crimes-against-humanity","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-gaza","14":"tag-human-rights","15":"tag-humanitarian-crises","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-israel-palestine-conflict","18":"tag-middle-east","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-occupied-west-bank"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114717776768569317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}