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EU to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza by 25 million euros
Israel-Hamas War: European Union would spend a total of 100 million euros in humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza," Ursula on der Leyen said.
The European Union will increase humanitarian aid to Gaza by 25 million euros ($26.9 million), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.
"By doing so the European Union would spend a total of 100 million euros in humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza," von der Leyen said in a speech in Brussels.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday suggested a plan under which Israel could suspend its military operation in Gaza in return for the Red Cross getting access to hostages held by Hamas.
"I think that a humanitarian pause counterbalanced by an access to hostages with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a first step to their release is an initiative in which we should work," Borrell told European Union diplomats in Brussels.
The EU, United States and Britain have been pushing for "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to ensured people in the besieged territory get help.
But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any temporary truces until all hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack are released.
"Call it a truce, window, whatever, but we need that violence recedes and that international humanitarian law is being respected," Borrell said.
Read more: Israel shows ‘proof’: Hamas using Qatar, Indonesia-funded hospitals for hiding
Israeli forces pushed on with intense strikes targeting Palestinian militants in Gaza on Monday as the war neared the one month mark and the Hamas-run health ministry's death toll approached 10,000, mostly civilians, inside the besieged territory.
Determined to destroy Hamas, whose October 7 attack left 1,400 people, mostly civilians, dead in Israel and saw over 240 hostages taken, Netanyahu has vowed no letup despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.
Borrell warned that an "overreaction by the Israelis in the end makes them lose the support of the international community".
"There is no military solution to the conflict," Borrell said.
"Even if Hamas is uprooted in Gaza, this will not solve the problem of Gaza."
