European Union Pushes for Gaza Cease-Fire, Aid
European Union foreign ministers called for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip to allow in aid and support a diplomatic process to end the conflict as Israel stepped up its attack on the Islamic Hamas movement.
“We all together want a cease-fire to be permanent, respected, with humanitarian access,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview with news channel TF1 today while hosting an EU ministers meeting in Paris. “And a return to the peace process, that’s what we all want.”
Israel bombed navy installations and other Hamas bases in Gaza as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated the conflict may broaden. Thirty Israeli air force sorties overnight leveled the Hamas government compound in Gaza City that housed the foreign, finance, justice and interior ministries as well as a naval base on the beach and the marina, Palestinian officials said.
It’s urgent in the current critical situation to find ways out of the spiral of violence,” German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier said today.
Steinmeier spoke by phone with regional leaders including Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to gauge the possibility of a temporary truce. It would offer an opening for talks leading to a sustained cease-fire, he said.
Imperiling Peace Talks
Germany says the violence risks imperiling ongoing peace talks and spurning “constructive” Arab negotiating partners. “That would push back the chances for a peaceful solution for years,” Steinmeier said in an e-mailed statement.
In a statement, the European Union said today “there is no military solution” to the conflict, and stressed a comprehensive resolution based on a return to the peace process.
The comments add weight to similar calls made by France and the U.K. this week.
“The immediate priorities are clear: first an immediate cease-fire, second renewal of the humanitarian aid to tackle the genuine crisis,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said late yesterday. “The crisis that we see in Gaza, the rockets going into Israel, the Israeli response are a reflection of weakness, the slow pace of the political drive for the two-state solution,” he said.
At least 360 Palestinians have been killed and 1,400 wounded since Israel started its aerial campaign on Dec. 27, according to the Palestinian emergency services office in Gaza City. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have died in the rocket attacks that Israeli leaders say the offensive is designed to stop after a six-month cease-fire expired Dec. 19.
Kouchner today said the EU doesn’t think the solution can be military and that it will be political.