Borrell says EU should consider sanctions on Israeli ministers over Gaza war remarks

euronews (in English)

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".

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00:00The EU's foreign policy chief has said the bloc should consider sanctions on some Israeli

00:06government ministers over their remarks about the war in Gaza.

00:11Josep Borrell said some members of the Israeli cabinet, who he didn't name, had released

00:15hateful messages and proposed things which clearly go against international law.

00:21And I think that European Union has not to have taboos in order to use our toolbox in

00:29order to make humanitarian law respected. But it's not my decision. I only have the

00:35capacity of proposal. Member states will decide.

00:41But the 27 EU member countries are divided over their approach to the war in Gaza and

00:46it's unlikely that all would agree to the proposal. There's already been pushback to

00:51the suggestion from Italy's foreign minister who called it unrealistic.

00:55We have to try to solve the problems, convince Israel to make choices which will lead to

01:02a ceasefire in Gaza, because this is the real priority. It's not with the recognition of

01:09the theoretical Palestine, with the sanctions on Israeli ministers, that the problem is

01:15solved. We need more diplomacy, we need messages.

01:20Those comments come on the same day the World Health Organization announced that Israel

01:24had agreed to limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow a polio vaccination campaign

01:29to go ahead. Described as humanitarian pauses that will last three days in different areas

01:34of the territory, the vaccination program will start on Sunday and will be run together

01:39with UNICEF, UNWR and local partners.

01:42I'm not going to say this is the ideal way forward, but this is a workable way forward.

01:49Not doing anything would be really bad. We have to stop this transmission in Gaza and

01:55we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza.

02:01The WHO says it aims to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10 and that the

02:07campaign had been coordinated with Israeli authorities.

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