Today, Thursday, Vice President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribeiro, stated that the displacement and killing in the Gaza Strip closely resemble genocide, marking the first time a commissioner from the bloc has made such an accusation and publicly diverged from the Commission's stance on the war.
Ribeiro - the second highest official in the European Commission - added in an interview published by Politico, "If it is not genocide, it closely resembles the definition of what it means."
Ribeiro told Politico, "What we are seeing is the targeting of real civilians, their killing, and sentencing them to death by starvation."
She emphasized that there is no semblance of humanity in Gaza, and no witnesses are allowed to attend, stating, "The people in Gaza are trapped without shelter, their homes are destroyed, and they are without food, water, or medicine."
Ribeiro's comments went further than what the European Commission has stated, which accused Israel of violating human rights in Gaza but stopped short of labeling it as genocide.
Ribeiro ranks second after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and is a Spanish socialist politician whose responsibilities include climate issues and antitrust matters, but she does not oversee the European Union's foreign policy.
Last week, the Commission proposed limiting Israel's access to its main research funding program following calls from EU countries to increase pressure on Israel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Commission stated in the proposal that Israel violated a clause related to human rights in the agreement governing its relations with the European Union.
It said that "through its intervention in the Gaza Strip and the ensuing humanitarian disaster - including thousands of civilian deaths and the rapid increase in cases of acute malnutrition, particularly among children - Israel is violating human rights and humanitarian law."
شارك برأيك
European official: The Gaza war is very similar to genocide.