BRUSSELS: European Union leaders were urged Thursday to show the same respect for international law in Gaza as they aim to uphold in Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face dire food shortages and possible famine.
At an EU summit in Brussels, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the leaders to remain strong and united in their respect of standards enshrined in the United Nations Charter and international law.
“The basic principle of international humanitarian law is the protection of civilians. We must stick to principles in Ukraine as in Gaza without double standards,” Guterres told reporters, standing alongside EU Council President Charles Michel, who chaired the summit.
A UN food agency has warned that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, appears determined to launch a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where many people have sought refuge from the fighting.
The 27-nation EU has long been deeply divided in its approach to Israel and the Palestinians, and the devastating Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 laid bare those differences. But as the death toll in Gaza mounts to nearly 32,000 people, more countries are supporting calls for a ceasefire.
In contrast, almost the entire bloc sees Russia’s two-year long war on Ukraine as an existential threat. They’ve poured billions of euros into supporting the country, by providing it with arms and ammunition and helping to prop up its war-ravaged economy.
“The response to the appalling crisis in Palestine has not been Europe’s finest hour, quite frankly,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whose country is among the strongest backers of the Palestinians.
“I think it has been undermining particularly of our efforts to defend Ukraine because so many countries in the global south – also known as most of the world – interpret Europe’s actions in relation to Ukraine versus Palestine as double standards. I think they have a point,” he said.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo described the events unfolding in Gaza as “dramatic.”
“We see today people who are trying to feed themselves by eating grass. People who are on the verge of being in a famine. Europe needs to lead, and not to follow, and it is time for us to be clear: to demand an immediate ceasefire, to demand the liberation of the hostages,” he told reporters.
In a draft statement prepared for the summit, seen by The Associated Press, the leaders are due to lament “the unprecedented loss of civilian lives and the critical humanitarian situation. The European Council calls for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire.”
The Israel-Hamas war has driven 80 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and UN officials say a quarter of the population is starving.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.
Concern is mounting about an imminent Israeli ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt. It’s a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel can’t achieve its goal of “total victory” against Hamas without going into Rafah.
The EU leaders would also urge “the Israeli government to refrain from a ground operation in Rafah,” saying that “such an operation would have devastating humanitarian consequences and must be avoided.” The statement was a draft that could change by the time the summit ends.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a staunch ally of Israel who visited the country on Sunday, said that “we are not for a big offensive in Rafah. I stressed that in Israel myself, and we hope that a longer-lasting ceasefire will now be possible that is also linked to the release of all hostages … and the handover of the dead.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that “what’s happening today in Gaza is the failure of humanity. It is not a humanitarian crisis. It is the failure of humanity.” The cause, he told reporters, “is not an earthquake, is not a flood. It’s bombing.”
![]()
UN chief urges the EU to avoid ‘double standards’ over Gaza and Ukraine
Short Url
https://arab.news/yk669
UN chief urges the EU to avoid ‘double standards’ over Gaza and Ukraine
- The 27-nation EU is deeply divided in its approach to Israel and the Palestinians
- Bloc is pouring billions of euros into Ukraine and most see Russia’s war as an existential threat
Foreign truckers ‘in God’s hands’ in militant-hit Mali
KIDIRA: Amath Mboup, a young Senegalese, is haunted by the charred and decomposing bodies of fellow truckers killed by jihadists lying along the highway to the Malian city of Kayes.
Since September, fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, have sought to cripple landlocked Mali’s economy and undermine its junta.
They have been blocking and sometimes attacking fuel tankers entering Mali and placing total blockades on certain strategic routes leading to the capital Bamako.
Hundreds of tankers from Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic capital, and the Senegalese capital Dakar have been set ablaze.
Dozens of drivers have been killed or kidnapped, particularly on the Kayes-Bamako road in the west of the country, near the border with Senegal.
After waiting two days for routine checks in the Senegalese border town of Kidira, one of the main crossing points between Senegal and Mali, Mboup — who is in his thirties — was preparing to travel onwards to Bamako, his truck loaded with goods.
Alone in the truck, where amulets hang to ward off bad luck, Mboup was apprehensive as he is every time he takes this route.
- ‘Everyone is afraid’ -
“Everyone is afraid to take this road because it’s too risky: You know you’re leaving, but you don’t know if you’ll come back alive,” he told AFP, his face dusty and pale with fatigue.
Malick Bodian, another Senegalese driver, told AFP he is always putting his life “in God’s hands.”
“Your mind is never at peace when you travel this road. You think you could be attacked at any moment,” he said.
Many of the truckers interviewed by AFP said there was no question of quitting their jobs.
“We don’t have a choice. It’s the only job I know how to do to feed my family,” said Mboup, a married father of two.
Behind him, dozens of trucks, engines rumbling, were lined up for several kilometers waiting to leave Senegal for the bumpy Malian roads and all their potential dangers.
Fuel tankers were not among the trucks, however. Last November, JNIM claimed in a propaganda video that all tanker drivers would henceforth be considered “military targets.”
The drivers in line were Senegalese, Malian, Ivorian and Burkinabe and many said they had encountered militants on their journeys.
“They often appear out of nowhere in the forest on motorcycles and are usually wearing turbans and heavily armed,” Malian driver Moussa Traore said.
“When you see them, you’re the one who slows down. Sometimes they stop you to ask for your documents, other times not,” he said.
- Obstacle course -
Mali imports most of its requirements, including fuel, fish, fruit and vegetables, by road from Senegal, Mauritania or Ivory Coast. More than 70 percent of its imports transit through Dakar port.
JNIM is waging a form of “economic jihad” in western Mali, aiming to destabilize the region by “targeting vital logistics routes,” according to a 2025 report by the Timbuktu Institute think tank.
Traveling on certain roads in Mali such as the one to Kayes has become an obstacle course.
“The flow of trucks that used to pass through Kidira is no longer the same,” said Modou Kayere, an official with the West African Truck Drivers Union, which represents some 15 countries.
In late November, Senegalese authorities reported that nearly 2,500 shipping containers filled with goods destined for Mali were blocked at Dakar port due to the security situation.
According to most of the drivers interviewed by AFP, vehicles carrying goods are rarely attacked by militants, unlike fuel tankers.
But the risk is real and the drivers are trying to adapt.
They have decided to stop driving at night and some have even set up alert networks on WhatsApp to warn their peers of danger on the road.
Since September, fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, have sought to cripple landlocked Mali’s economy and undermine its junta.
They have been blocking and sometimes attacking fuel tankers entering Mali and placing total blockades on certain strategic routes leading to the capital Bamako.
Hundreds of tankers from Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic capital, and the Senegalese capital Dakar have been set ablaze.
Dozens of drivers have been killed or kidnapped, particularly on the Kayes-Bamako road in the west of the country, near the border with Senegal.
After waiting two days for routine checks in the Senegalese border town of Kidira, one of the main crossing points between Senegal and Mali, Mboup — who is in his thirties — was preparing to travel onwards to Bamako, his truck loaded with goods.
Alone in the truck, where amulets hang to ward off bad luck, Mboup was apprehensive as he is every time he takes this route.
- ‘Everyone is afraid’ -
“Everyone is afraid to take this road because it’s too risky: You know you’re leaving, but you don’t know if you’ll come back alive,” he told AFP, his face dusty and pale with fatigue.
Malick Bodian, another Senegalese driver, told AFP he is always putting his life “in God’s hands.”
“Your mind is never at peace when you travel this road. You think you could be attacked at any moment,” he said.
Many of the truckers interviewed by AFP said there was no question of quitting their jobs.
“We don’t have a choice. It’s the only job I know how to do to feed my family,” said Mboup, a married father of two.
Behind him, dozens of trucks, engines rumbling, were lined up for several kilometers waiting to leave Senegal for the bumpy Malian roads and all their potential dangers.
Fuel tankers were not among the trucks, however. Last November, JNIM claimed in a propaganda video that all tanker drivers would henceforth be considered “military targets.”
The drivers in line were Senegalese, Malian, Ivorian and Burkinabe and many said they had encountered militants on their journeys.
“They often appear out of nowhere in the forest on motorcycles and are usually wearing turbans and heavily armed,” Malian driver Moussa Traore said.
“When you see them, you’re the one who slows down. Sometimes they stop you to ask for your documents, other times not,” he said.
- Obstacle course -
Mali imports most of its requirements, including fuel, fish, fruit and vegetables, by road from Senegal, Mauritania or Ivory Coast. More than 70 percent of its imports transit through Dakar port.
JNIM is waging a form of “economic jihad” in western Mali, aiming to destabilize the region by “targeting vital logistics routes,” according to a 2025 report by the Timbuktu Institute think tank.
Traveling on certain roads in Mali such as the one to Kayes has become an obstacle course.
“The flow of trucks that used to pass through Kidira is no longer the same,” said Modou Kayere, an official with the West African Truck Drivers Union, which represents some 15 countries.
In late November, Senegalese authorities reported that nearly 2,500 shipping containers filled with goods destined for Mali were blocked at Dakar port due to the security situation.
According to most of the drivers interviewed by AFP, vehicles carrying goods are rarely attacked by militants, unlike fuel tankers.
But the risk is real and the drivers are trying to adapt.
They have decided to stop driving at night and some have even set up alert networks on WhatsApp to warn their peers of danger on the road.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.