On the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation

–having regard to the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002,

–having regard to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 of 21 September 2022,

–having regard to the UN human rights conventions and international humanitarian law treaties to which Israel, Palestine and the EU Member States are States Parties,

–having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas on 7 October 2023 Hamas launched a deadly, unprecedented and unjustifiable terrorist attack against Israel and its people, killing at least 1 200 Israelis and foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom were civilians, including 36 children; whereas Hamas and other groups committed mass atrocities and injured thousands of innocent civilians;

B.whereas in reaction to the terrorist attack Israel launched a massive and unprecedented military assault on Gaza and initiated a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza on 27 October 2023; whereas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 23 000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including 10 000 children; whereas 70 % of those killed were women and children; whereas almost 60 000 Palestinians in Gaza have been injured; whereas at least 1.9 million people, or nearly 85 % of the total population of Gaza, are internally displaced; whereas, according to press reports and UN monitors, nearly 70 % of Gaza’s 439 000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including hospitals, schools, churches and mosques; whereas according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 21 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are closed, 11 are partially functional and four are minimally functional;

C.whereas on 7 October 2023 Hamas members abducted 250 persons from Israeli territory and took them to Gaza as hostages; whereas Israeli authorities estimate that 136 hostages remain captive in Gaza; whereas a ceasefire agreed upon by Israel and Hamas on 24 November led to the release of 105 Israelis and foreign nationals held by Hamas and 243 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel; whereas on 18 December Israeli soldiers unintentionally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza;

D.whereas the Israeli military campaign and ‘total siege’ of Gaza has created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis; whereas the 16-year old illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt had already led to a critical humanitarian and socio-economic situation and a near total dependency on foreign aid;

E.whereas since 7 October, the situation in the West Bank has seen a sharp deterioration, including a considerable increase in settler violence;

F.whereas on 9 October Israel cut off all supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel; whereas since 11 October, the Gaza Strip has been under an electricity blackout; whereas limited amounts of aid, water and fuel have been allowed into Gaza since the ceasefire in late November; whereas insufficient deliveries from the outside coupled with the destruction of civilian health infrastructure and food production and distribution facilities are pushing Gazans to the limits of survival; whereas according to the WHO, 93 % of Gaza’s population is suffering from hunger, the highest percentage of food insecurity ever observed worldwide since the introduction of the food insecurity index in 2004; whereas the spread of diseases in Gaza is rampant, especially among young children, due to displacement, malnutrition and the destruction of the health and sanitary infrastructure;

G.whereas the war in Gaza has taken an unprecedented toll on journalists, media workers and aid workers, notably UN staff; whereas according to Reporters Without Borders at least 81 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, the majority of whom are Palestinian; whereas according to the International Federation of Journalists 72 % of journalists killed worldwide in 2023 have been killed in the Gaza conflict; whereas the rate of killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza significantly exceeds that in any conflict in the past 100 years; whereas by the end of 2023 over 136 UN staff, mostly employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), had been killed in Gaza, which is the highest number of aid workers killed in UN history in such a short time;

H.whereas on 8 January UN experts called the growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas in Israeli villages particularly harrowing, referring to allegations of sexual torture, rapes and gang rapes, as well as sexual assaults;

I.whereas some Israeli politicians have issued dehumanising and inflammatory statements against Palestinians;

J.whereas there is a serious risk of regional escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict; whereas since 7 October there have been several violent skirmishes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military in southern Lebanon, necessitating the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians both from northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon; whereas in January 2024 Israel started targeted assassinations against senior Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian figures; whereas in November 2023 the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen began a series of attacks targeting southern Israel as well as commercial ships in the Red Sea;

K.whereas the humanitarian and human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been deteriorating for years in large part due to Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territories and the policies that sustain it; whereas according to the World Bank, 53 % of Gazans live below the poverty line; whereas over half of the population in Gaza are minors; whereas Hamas governs Gaza in an authoritarian way, systematically violating basic principles of human rights and the rule of law;

L.whereas, in late December 2023, Egypt proposed a plan to end the war in Gaza with a ceasefire and presented it to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments;

M.whereas 30 years after the signature of the Oslo Accords, the Israel-Palestine conflict remains unresolved and the continuation of the occupation and violent confrontations have caused thousands of fatalities and immeasurable suffering;

N.whereas Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are listed on the EU terrorist list;

O.whereas the European Union is a major donor to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA, which is the largest and oldest UN agency present in Gaza and delivers essential services to Palestine refugees; whereas on 21 November the Commission re-confirmed that no evidence has been found to date that EU money to Palestine has been diverted for unintended purposes;

P.whereas the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation in 2021 into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories; whereas on 10 October 2023 the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC confirmed that the court’s mandate applies to the current conflict situation;

Q.whereas on 29 December 2023 South Africa filed an application under the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ); whereas the allegations include failure to prevent genocide, failure to prosecute public incitement to genocide, and direct engagement in genocidal acts in Gaza; whereas the application highlights the critical need for provisional measures seeking immediate cessation of actions contributing to the alleged violations; whereas Israel is cooperating with the ICJ and will defend itself against the charges brought against it;

1.Urgently calls on all parties to immediately cease hostilities and agree on a permanent ceasefire;

2.Calls for the immediate, unconditional and safe release of all hostages held in Gaza and that their rights and personal dignity be respected in accordance with international humanitarian law; calls for the perpetrators and organisers of those crimes to be prosecuted and punished;

3.Reiterates its condemnation of the brutal, deliberate and unjustifiable terrorist attacks by the terror organisation Hamas and other militant groups against Israel and its people; highlights that deliberate killings of civilians and the taking of hostages are war crimes;

4.Condemns the disproportionate Israeli military response which has caused a civilian death toll on an unprecedented scale, particularly for children, who make up at least a third of the victims, has led to mass displacement, a humanitarian catastrophe, huge destruction of civilian infrastructure, important cultural heritage and the environment, and immense and ongoing human suffering; reminds the Government of Israel that international humanitarian law requires that the parties to an armed conflict take all necessary measures to minimise the impact of military operations on civilians;

5.Acknowledges the deep, collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and expresses its profound sorrow and full solidarity with the innocent victims on all sides, their families and loved ones;

6.Reiterates the need for all parties to uphold international law and international humanitarian law; condemns Israeli military tactics that subject the civilian population of Gaza to collective punishment and fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants; condemns the use of heavy explosive weapons in densely populated areas, including the prohibited employment of white phosphorus, which causes indiscriminate harm; condemns the targeting of hospitals, schools and shelters, as well as the imposition of restrictions on humanitarian relief entering Gaza; condemns Hamas’s tactics of mixing their combatants with the civilian population;

7.Expresses deep concern about the Israeli Government’s evacuation orders, forcibly displacing the civilian population from northern Gaza to southern Gaza and confining them to less than a third of Gazan territory, while targeting zones and civilian infrastructure that the Israeli authorities had said would be safe;

8.Reminds the Government of Israel that expelling Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt or any other place without the right to return at the end of hostilities would amount to a war crime;

9.Denounces the continuation of the indiscriminate launch of rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and other groups, which constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law;

10.Considers the pursuit of accountability, the end of impunity and holding perpetrators responsible for their crimes a crucial step toward halting the cycle of violence and upholding the principles of international law; therefore supports the ongoing work of the ICC and ICJ in Israel and Palestine; takes note of Israel’s engagement with the ICJ on the ongoing application by South Africa; urges all parties to fully respect and implement any decision on provisional measures that the ICJ may order, as required by the ICJ Statute;

11.Denounces and deplores the killing of journalists, media workers, UN staff and health care workers by airstrikes in Gaza and reiterates the importance of their work; recalls that under international humanitarian law parties to armed conflicts need to take all necessary measures to minimise the impact on civilians, which includes journalists and media workers, as well as ambulances, healthcare workers and their patients;

12.Is highly concerned by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and urges the immediate lifting of the siege of Gaza and the full, safe and unhindered access of humanitarian aid to all parts of Gaza; stresses that the Israeli authorities, as the occupying power over Gaza under international law, have a duty to ensure that the basic needs of the population are met;

13.Condemns the dehumanising and inflammatory language used by some members of the Israeli Government and the Knesset as well as other relevant Israeli public figures, calling for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza; condemns statements by Hamas representatives threatening to repeat the attacks of 7 October 2023;

14.Recalls that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for decades and violence has continuously bred further violence and strengthened extremists; expresses its deep concern that relations and political dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians have been entirely eroded over the past years and that the protracted occupation of Palestinian territory, including the record expansion of settlements, growing settler violence, demolitions, land confiscation and evictions, has created an untenable situation and multiple human rights crises that need to be addressed urgently; stresses that violence, terrorism and incitement are fundamentally incompatible with a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

15.Recalls that there is no military solution to the current conflict; holds the view that Israel can neither take over military nor civilian rule over Gaza; stresses the need for Palestinian governance and rule in all Palestinian territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state;

16.Is highly concerned about the high risk of a widening regional war; condemns all acts by state and non-state actors that provoke or feed an intensifying escalatory cycle and urges all states and parties to refrain from such acts and exercise the utmost restraint; recalls that both the north of Israel and the south of Lebanon are inhabited by civilians whose protection needs to be a priority at all times;

17.Recognises the importance of civil society and bottom-up efforts to establish and sustain any diplomatic process between Israelis and Palestinians; calls for the establishment of a multilateral working group, involving a wide array of states and Israeli, Palestinian and international civil society to coordinate efforts toward that goal, with the European Parliament willing to host an inaugural meeting; calls on the VP/HR and the Member States to reiterate their strong support for civil society in both Israel and Palestine and condemn and counteract defamation against them;

18.Calls on the VP/HR, representatives of the Commission and the Member States to use all diplomatic means available to urge the parties involved to immediately cease hostilities and establish a permanent ceasefire agreement; calls on the VP/HR and the Member States to react to the ceasefire plan set forth by Egypt and explore the possibilities for its implementation;

19.Calls on the VP/HR, representatives of the Commission and the Member States to strongly condemn the blatant breaches of international humanitarian and international law and urge the parties to protect civilians;

20.Welcomes the Commission’s and the Member States’ increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, but recalls that the humanitarian catastrophe can only be alleviated with access to Gaza; therefore, calls on the Commission and the Member States to urge Israel to lift the siege and allow for adequate, safe and unhindered delivery of all the aid stored at the border;

21.Reiterates its concern about the destabilising role that Iran and its network of violent non-state actors play in the broader Middle East region; calls on the VP/HR and the Member States to continue and step up their shuttle diplomacy in the region with the aim of sending a strong signal to Iran and its proxies to cease any attacks and withhold responses to recent killings of some of their senior representatives as well as to warn Israel not to escalate its confrontation with Hezbollah; calls for the EU and the Member States to follow German Foreign Minister Baerbock’s initiative to strengthen the capacity and mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to contribute to de-escalation along the Israeli-Lebanese border;

22.Calls on the VP/HR and the Member States to address the root causes of the current conflict and, in coordination with partners in the region and the international community, to intensify efforts for a negotiated two-state solution, on the basis of the internationally shared understanding that this offers the best chance for a viable peace settlement, with the aim of ending the recurring violence and enabling people on the Israeli and Palestinian sides to live in security, freedom, dignity and with equal rights; calls on the VP/HR to capitalise on the ‘Peace Day Effort for Middle East Peace’ launched with the League of Arab States, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, in order to revive the Arab Peace Plan; welcomes the European Council’s initiative of holding an international peace conference;

23.Welcomes the proposal by VP/HR Borrell in December 2023 to enact sanctions against extremist settlers responsible for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank; calls on the European Council to act on the VP/HRs proposal to make a contribution to addressing the rising violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East-Jerusalem, in the shadow of the war in Gaza;

24.Underlines the importance of the European Union’s reliable development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people throughout the occupied Palestinian Territory, including that to the Palestinian Authority, UNRWA and Palestinian civil society; takes note that in the course of its review of EU funds to Palestine the Commission found no evidence that EU money to Palestine has been diverted for unintended purposes;

25.Calls for the EU and the Member States to support all initiatives to uphold accountability for the violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, notably through support to the work of the ICC whose mandate includes crimes under international law committed by all parties in the current fighting, as well as the work of the ICJ;

26.Condemns the spike in antisemitism, islamophobia and anti-Arab/anti-Palestinian racism across Europe and worldwide; calls for the EU and the Member States to encourage reporting of and adequately collect anti-discrimination data in order to devise more effective strategies to properly protect people from the discrimination they face in their daily lives;

27.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the Knesset and the Government of Israel, and the President of the Palestinian Authority.