But the proposal is unlikely to find consensus among the EU’s 27 member countries who are divided over their approach to the war in Gaza. It has already been criticised by Italy’s foreign minister as “unrealistic”.
The EU’s foreign policy chief has said the bloc should consider imposing sanctions on some government ministers in Israel over their remarks about the war in Gaza.
Josep Borrell said some members of the Israeli cabinet, who he didn’t name, had released “hateful messages” and proposed things which “clearly go against international law”.
“I think that the European Union has not to have taboos in order to use our toolbox in order to make humanitarian law respected. But it’s not my decision. I only have the capacity of proposal. Member States will decide,” he said to reporters in Brussels after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
But the 27 EU member countries are divided over their approach to the war in Gaza and it’s unlikely that all would all agree on such a move.
There has already been pushback to the suggestion from Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, who called it “unrealistic”.
“We must try to solve the problems by convincing Israel to make choices that lead to a ceasefire in Gaza, because this is the real priority. It is not with the recognition of theoretical Palestine, with sanctions on Israeli ministers, that the problem will be solved. We need more diplomacy, we also need strong messages,” he said.
“But I believe that this is not the right way to convince Israel to conclude an agreement with the other parties in Cairo.”
Polio vaccination campaign
Those comments come after the World Health Organization announced that Israel had agreed to limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow the health body to oversee a polio vaccination rollout for hundreds of thousands of children after a baby contracted the first confirmed case in 25 years in the Palestinian territory.
Described as “humanitarian pauses” that will last three days in different areas of the territory, the vaccination campaign will start on Sunday in central Gaza and will be run together with UNICEF, UNRWA and local partners.
“I think this is a way forward. I’m not going to say this is the ideal way forward, but this is a workable way forward. Not doing anything would be really bad, we have to stop this transmission in Gaza and we have to avoid the transmission outside, outside Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories.
Peeperkorn said the health body aims to vaccinate 640,000 children under 10 and that the campaign has been coordinated with Israeli authorities.
“We know that with these type of polio outbreaks, the circulating vaccine derived polio virus type two that you will need to vaccinate at least 90% of children to stop the transmission. And that’s where we are so focused on. So if we under vaccinate, you know, we are not stopping the transmission.”
