00:00Leanne, the EU says sanctions against Israel remain on the table if these humanitarian conditions in Gaza don't improve.
00:07Do you believe that criticism from the EU is fair or is there some political motivation that's going on under the current?
00:13Look, I think the EU is now trying to find its role in stabilizing the situation.
00:19But that role has to be constructive.
00:22And I'm very relieved to hear that the EU backed out from these sanctions
00:26because these would not have been any constructive moves towards stabilizing the situation.
00:33I think that, of course, there is a humanitarian issue in Gaza.
00:37The vast majority of Israelis are aware of it and are empathetic towards it.
00:43And I think that throughout the war, the vast majority of days and weeks, there has been an inflow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
00:50But unfortunately, most of that humanitarian aid has been stolen or has been then resold by Hamas.
00:59So there's attempts of finding a solution.
01:02That solution is not perfect.
01:04I was strongly opposing the move for completely holding the humanitarian aid by Israel for those few weeks when that happened back in March.
01:15But ever since the humanitarian aid was basically started again through a new mechanism, that mechanism is not perfect.
01:24But it is there.
01:26It's working.
01:27The vast majority of Gazans are getting what they need.
01:31And if there should be any EU pressure, it should be on Hamas to release the hostages.
01:37I want to remind us all there are still 50 hostages, 50 Israeli hostages, kept by the most brutal terrorist organization in the Middle East, Hamas.
01:46They are being kept in tunnels.
01:4820 of them are considered alive, but being kept in terrible conditions without any access to very basic needs.
01:56And this is happening nearly 650 days in a row.
02:01So if there should be any international pressure, any EU pressure, it should be on Hamas to release the hostages and to disarm itself,
02:09which is what the entire moderate Arab players are demanding as well.
