Brussels is set to increase humanitarian aid to Palestine just one day after it had planned to suspend funds to the country, the vice president of the European Commission has said.
Following an emergency meeting of the 27 foreign ministers of the EU member states, Josep Borrell said the “overwhelming majority” of EU nations want to continue support payments to Palestine.
He added the bloc must “increase our humanitarian support to the victims of this tragedy” while the EU urgently reviews funding to the warring country to ensure that Hamas terrorists don’t benefit.
The European Commission yesterday initially announced its plan to suspend development aid to Palestine, stating the payments would be “immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals … postponed until further notice.”
But just five hours later, it U-turned and stated “there will be no suspension of payments”.
Talking to reporters today, Mr Borrell said: “It was an overwhelming majority — overwhelming majority — with maybe two or three exceptions of the member states stating clearly that their cooperation with the Palestinian Authority has to continue, and the funding has to continue and the payments should not be interrupted.
He added: “I don’t know exactly when is the next payment to be done. But the important thing is that there is not going to be any structural delay … it will not will not be a suspension.”
However, he warned the ongoing review needs to be swift just in case the funding is being used to pay for Hamas’ horrifying activities.
He said: “If we discover that we have been funding Hamas’s activities.
“Someone will have to take political responsibility for that.”
He added: “I don’t believe it happens”.
After the EU’s U-turn yesterday, the organisation said it had started an “urgent review of the EU’s assistance for Palestine” with the objective of ensuring that zero funding “enables” terrorists to attack Israel.
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