Strasbourg (UNA/WAFA) – Sixty members of the European Parliament called on the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Callas, to convene an urgent meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers to reach a consensus on imposing sanctions on the Israeli government.
This came in a letter addressed to Callas by members of parliament from different political groups in the European Parliament on Monday evening.
The lawmakers said that Israel has imposed a blockade on the occupied West Bank since last Friday, considering these measures to amount to “collective punishment.”
The letter stated: “By using collective punishment, which is a war crime under international law, the Israeli government aims to entrench its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and further escalate tensions during the elections in Israel.”
The MPs pointed to the demolition of Palestinian homes in Hebron, and the granting of some families a deadline of no more than 5 minutes to evacuate their homes, considering that what is happening represents “a decisive turning point for the future of the West Bank and the ability of the Palestinian state to continue.”
They stressed that the European Union “cannot remain silent” in the face of what they described as a large-scale Israeli attack on the West Bank.
The MPs called on the bloc to condemn the Israeli measures, call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank, and hold an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to reach an agreement on imposing sanctions on the Israeli government.
It should be noted that the occupation forces have imposed a siege on the Hebron Governorate, specifically the Al-Jalda and Deir Baha areas in the city, for the fifth day in a row, as the number of families affected by the aggression has risen to 619 families, while about 3971 citizens were forced to flee their homes, and 85 citizens were arrested..
This comes in conjunction with the escalation of attacks by the occupation forces and settler terrorism against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the start of the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
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