BRUSSELS, GENEVA: The EU warned on Tuesday that Israel’s ground assault on Gaza City will add to the toll of death and destruction, and worsen an already “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the territory.
“The EU has consistently urged Israel not to intensify its operation in Gaza City,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.
“A military intervention will lead to more destruction, more death and more displacement, and we have been clear that this will also aggravate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and also endangers the lives of hostages,” he said.
Israel launched its long anticipated ground assault on Gaza City before dawn on Tuesday, unleashing a massive bombardment as troops moved into the territory’s largest urban hub.
Brussels is expected on Wednesday to put forward proposals for a raft of measures against Israel over the war in Gaza.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said last week they would include suspending the trade parts of a cooperation agreement and sanctioning “extremist” Israeli ministers.
But it will be very difficult to get the measures through given deep divisions between the EU’s 27 countries over Israel’s war in Gaza.
An official of the UN’s children’s agency said it was “inhumane” to expect hundreds of thousands of children to leave Gaza City as camps further south were unsafe, overcrowded and ill-equipped to receive them.
Israel has ordered residents to flee. So far, more than 140,000 have already fled south from Gaza City since Aug. 14, UN data shows, of a population of around 1 million people.
“It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatized by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape and end up in another,” Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson, said by video link from the sprawling tent camp of Mawasi, Gaza. Conditions there are so desperate that some people who fled Israel’s new offensive on famine-struck Gaza City in recent days are heading back toward the falling bombs, they told Reuters.
“People really do have no good option — stay in danger or flee to a place that they also know is dangerous,” she said, adding that some children had been killed at the Mawasi camp while collecting water.
Ingram described seeing large numbers of people fleeing down the main road out of Gaza City this week. One mother, Israa, made the journey on foot accompanied by her five hungry, thirsty children including two with no shoes, said Ingram, who met them. “They were walking into the unknown — no clear destination or plan — with little hope of finding solace,” she said.
British foreign minister Yvette Cooper condemned Israel’s ground assault on Gaza City as “utterly reckless and appalling,” calling instead for an immediate ceasefire. “It will only bring more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians and endanger the remaining hostages,” she said in a post on X.
