EU foreign ministers have endorsed a “humanitarian pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to get into Gaza in sufficient quantities.
The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, said there was consensus around the issue at a meeting of the EU ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.
EU leaders are set to discuss the issue at a summit on Thursday after rifts emerged within the bloc over how to respond.
Borrell admitted the EU could not “decree” a temporary cessation in hostilities but said it would help send a message to Israel in the same way Joe Biden’s message about the importance of restraint appears to have helped delay a ground invasion of Gaza.
Borrell said he backed a call by the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, for a break in the conflict for more aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza.
A declaration drafted by officials, seen by the Guardian, reiterates the need for an “immediate release of all hostages” and the need to “avoid regional escalation”.
Borrell said reconnecting electricity supplies full-time to Gaza was essential. Without electricity, the desalination plants could not work and without those there would be no water and hospitals would “barely function”, he added.
The moves reflected increasing alarm about the fate of Palestinian civilians after two weeks of Israel bombarding and blockading Gaza in response to the Hamas assault that killed 1,400 people and took more than 220 hostage.
More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, and about 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are now internally displaced, according to the United Nations.
Two aid convoys – one of 20 trucks, the other of 14 – entered Gaza over the weekend from Egypt at the Rafah crossing, according to officials. But aid workers said this was a fraction of the aid that would go into Gaza even in normal times.
EU members including France, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Luxembourg have also backed the idea of a humanitarian pause. “There’s a vital need to get water, to get food, to get medical supplies into Gaza,” said the Irish foreign minister, Micheál Martin. “The degree of human suffering is immense. We have to distinguish between the civilians of Gaza and Hamas.”
But some other ministers openly expressed reservations about the proposal or avoided a direct answer when asked about it.
Asked why Germany had not backed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said recent days had shown the importance of getting aid into Gaza but had also made clear that Hamas was continuing to attack Israel.
“We’ve all seen that the terrorism continues non-stop, that massive rocket attacks against Israel are taking place,” she said. “We can’t end the humanitarian catastrophe when the terrorism from Gaza continues.”
Some questioned whether a pause would impede Israel’s right to defend itself as it seeks to destroy Hamas positions in Gaza.
“Of course everyone would wish that the violence comes to an end. But Israel has the right to self-defence,” said the Austrian foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg.
The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, questioned “how such a ceasefire should be established with a partner inside Gaza, where the Hamas terrorist organisation now is controlling the situation”.
Reuters contributed to this report.
