By Manal Abdel Fattah
Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that Minister Sameh Shukri, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, met with the Foreign Ministers of the European Union and Mr. Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, where a dialogue took place. An in-depth review of the situation in the Gaza Strip and efforts to contain the worsening humanitarian crisis.
The official spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated that Minister Shukri stressed in his speech during the meeting that the continued Israeli deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and the indiscriminate targeting of the infrastructure system in the Strip, is now pushing the capabilities of the entire region into risks with uncalculated consequences, and clearly threatens the foundations of international peace and security. Warning of the repercussions of the international community’s inability to stop this humanitarian crisis, whose daily victims exceed the death toll in any other conflict during the twenty-first century, and which resulted in the displacement of about 1.9 million Palestinians from their homes inside the Gaza Strip, in a serious violation of the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law.
Minister Shukri stressed the complete Egyptian rejection of the principle and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians outside their country, considering the matter a red line, and the need for international parties to move away from double standards and call Israeli violations by their correct names without any false justifications that legitimize the shedding of more innocent Palestinian blood.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also called on the European Union countries to adopt categorical positions towards achieving a comprehensive and immediate ceasefire, and to condemn all violations of international humanitarian law, noting the potential effects of the crisis on increasing the spread of extremist and inflammatory thought in the world, as well as the possibility of creating a gap and casting doubt on the credibility of the civilizational values and cultures that Societies are built on it, which requires a clear European position in line with the values of humanity at the political and humanitarian levels.
Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid concluded his statements, noting that Minister Shukri stressed that any proposals that address the next day after the crisis in Gaza without stipulating an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities remain in the context of theoretical treatment of the crisis, stressing that a sustainable solution to the current crisis will only be achieved with the presence of Conclusive international support – including the European Union – for the implementation of the decisions of international legitimacy based on the two-state solution, according to a specific time frame, leading to the establishment of an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
