Israel's siege of Gaza is illegal, EU says

"Israel has a right to self-defence, but it has to be done within international law ... cutting water, cutting electricity, cutting food to a mass of civilian people is against international law," said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday (10 October).

He repeated the view more than once in his press briefing. "The Palestinian people are also suffering," he added.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. This cycle of violence and repression needs to stop.

- By that logic, the other way this ends is the dissolution of israel.
  They cant seem to stop themselves from murdering and pillaging their neighbors, right? So they have to go. Right? Thats matching your logic just fine.
- There's another possibility.
  Lebanon gets involved. Then Iran. Then the US. Then Iraq. Then Afghanistan. Then Russia. On and on until it's WW3
  But no one wants to talk about that
- they really could have just left them alone. It would have been exactly the same result with the Palestinians blaming those in Palestine for their issues.
  instead they meddle and build illegal settlements.
- Found the Zionist
- Israel isn’t just denying Hamas water, they are denying Palestinians water. That includes children and infants and uninvolved innocents.
- Have they considered not trying to take over land that isn't theirs?
- The children living in Gaza don't have that option. Hopefully evacuation corridors are operational.
- Few people are worried about hamas. The concern is for the women and children. The people with no say in any of this. It's not a crime to refuse to resupply an enemy, it is a crime to starve innocent people.
- https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties
- Same rhetoric as German occupiers claiming that they would not execute civilian hostages as long as Resistance fighters would give themselves up. Sorry for the Goldwyn point but you made it a low hanging fruit.
- You are talking about an area of the world that is nearly 50% children.
It is a pretty clown face move to attach those that supply your water, electricity and fuel.
- That's slave mentality, dude

This is true. But it is also because there isn't a much better alternative.
The Palestinians don't have a Nelson Mandela, MLK or Mahatma Gandhi kind of person that the western world can rally around and support.
Like, I'm sitting here at home in Europe, thoroughly disapproving of Israel, while being also fully disgusted by what Hamas did.
And I understand why Palestinians fight. I can understand that they can't be fully pacifist and that they don't have the capability to wage a normal war, so they result to asymmetric warfare.
But if they had just cleanly killed or kidnapped the adults and spared the children, that would have been the minimum to not fully alienate a lot of people who are sympathetic to their cause.
I guess Yasser Arafat was the best they had and it only went downhill after that.
- The West called Mandela a terrorist until he won and they killed MLK
  So
- Thing also is that those people were also hated during thier time and also called terrorists. There’s no good options for a leader sadly.
- They dont need a Palestinian Mandela to stop military and civil aid and cooperation when Israel commits war crimes.
The UN condemns Israel as a pastime activity. Nobody in Israel cares what they say at this point.
Because they are the West’s military outpost in the Middle East A
I guess sanctions only make sense when Israel is out of the picture.

Obviously illegal. Collective punishment is a war crime and makes Israel a monster. Imagine if there was a murderer in your building and the feds blew the entire building up.

Israel is willingly lead by a monster.
- "The only democracy in the Middle East"
Oh I love allegories. Let me try.
Imagine there was a murderer in your building. But he is not really interested in murdering you, he keeps shooting at some other people you also hate. The feds have tried to go into the building to extract the murderer, but his friends and you lynched the feds when they tried. The murderer has stockpiled his guns in the building and the feds figure that if they can't get to the murderer at least they can destroy his guns and vantage point from which he is firing at people. They don't really want to destroy the building but the murderer is actively trying to kill people and the people he is trying to kill demands action.
You receive a text message that the building you are in will be destroyed shortly. You want to leave, but now the murderer says he will kill you if you do.
It is a very silly thing to think that having a "civilian" stay in a legitimate military target ( rocket launcher and or rocket storage ) makes it a place that is untouchable!
- And then you left and srill the rocket kills you even when you ate not in the building anymore
As is punishing all Russian passport holders for the action of the government. So it's either both EU and Israel are monsters or neither is.
- Not being able to spend summer in the Algarve and being brutally murdered is totally the same thing.
- Launching missiles across borders is different than securing your own borders. You can't possibly really be trying to equate the two?
- As a punished Russian living in Lomonosov, let me explain you what has changed for us since this "punishment" started:
  Absolutely nothing.
  (Oh, yes, Coke bottles are now green, instead of red.)
- This is not valid in all cases as I know multiple Russians and those living in EU continue to do so with no issue and those living in RU say it doesn't affect them. You can even find interview with random RU citizens in RU and they all say it doesn't affect them or that they want to attack UA BC Nato boarder is too close.
Didn't you just describe Putin's warm up run in the late ninties?
- Remember when they did this?

Israel's actions are a direct consequence of what Hamas did," Borrell's spokesman had said in Brussels earlier the same day.

Uhh, I think you meant to say "Hamas' actions are a direct consequence of what Israel has been doing to Gaza"

You really wouldn't gather this by looking at the media churn. It's pro Israel to with it's foot to the floor. If you dare voice distention, you are labeled to be an anti Semite. This successful tactic has been a go to for years. For Israel to know true peace, they need to dump its current leadership. I won't see this happen in my lifetime.
- I don't know what media you read, but this has not been my experience with The Intercept, Aljazera, and Democracy Now
It both is the case. But it should be really obvious to anyone that even a horrific terrorist attack doesn't just absolve Israel from international law.
- Hamas is Gaza's government and military. Yes, they've committed war crimes and many call them terrorists.
  The IOF is Israel's military. Yes, they've committed war crimes and many call them terrorists.
- I'm all for open discussions. But.... shouldn't one know the basic facts on a topic before seemingly expressing an opinion on the matter? You clearly need to take an unbiased look at the situation.
  You do not kill hundreds of innocent people and blame it on oppression.
  The oblivious irony of such a statement.
- No, you kill thousands of innocent people and say they were terrorists or helping terrorists.
"Jungle" Borell still in peak colonialist form.
Jesus Christ. 1200 civilians died. You are actually impossible

Well, no shit. And nothing will be done about it.

Not directed at OP

The EU may support Israel, but right now they're calling them out for this bullshit and I'm applauding them for that. Hurting innocent civilians is never a good idea no matter which side of the conflict does it.

The Palestinian government attacked their neighbor and took hostages. Their neighbor then stopped supplying Palestine with resources.
It seems Israel is aiming for the best case scenario here, which is for the people of Palestine to overthrow the death cult that controls their state.
- Nice work ignoring the decades of conflict. It's not like Israel has been stealing all the land they agreed to "allow" Palestinians have for the last 50+ years or anything, right?
- That's called collective punishment, and is a war crime.
  They're not really neighbors. Gaza is more like a prison controlled by Israel. Israel has controlled Gaza's electricity, food, water, and the movement of its citizens for many years. I believe even before this attack, Israel only allowed Gaza 4 hours of electricity per day.
  Also, in 2019, the PM of Israel reportedly laid out a strategy to "bolster" Hamas and provide them funding to oppose the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, in its current form, would not have been possible without Israel creating the perfect conditions for terrorist organizations to thrive. Israel keeps the conditions so bad, the average age in Gaza is 18. So, half of those Palestinian death toll numbers we are seeing are likely children.
- There's pictures of the Israelis landing in palestine by boat 75 years ago begging for asylum, they never stuck to the border agreements over the years and continuously steal land and kill palestinians, Israelis are scum of the earth lowlife colonisers. End of story.
It angers me how many people are now permanently displaced. From what I've seen, the numbers are going to be extremely high. How do you rehouse an entire city? Families are going to suffer many hardships because of this. I can't think of a better way to recruit a new generation for an age old cause.
- A splinter in my mind has been spawned because of this.
I just noticed that the replies have turned into a crap ton of arguing.

Gaza doesn’t have any oil so nobody will help.

Hasn't this always been the case?

Israel has not been a shining example of virtue over the years. I'm not excusing the disgusting actions by the other side, where they are proved true, as some of the pictures have already been discounted, but this would only make Israel come down harder.

I don't the have an answer, but what ever us happening now is certainly not it.

So you just want them to sit back and take their genocide laying down? Of course you do, because you don't really support the Palestine struggle, you're just clutching at pearls because the thought of the oppressed rising up scares you.
- It is weird talking about a genocide against Israel, while they starve 2 million people.
- I think you are confused, Israel are the ones who are planning on carrying out genocide.
- Not what I said at all.
  Nobody wins here. Parading mutilated corpses and taking hostages is not 'supporting the struggle' though.

So was the blockade. and they did nothing about it . bunch of spineless hypocrites

What is the EU going to do without the US’s approval? UN is out due to permanent security member’s veto power. Going against the USA means loss of a lot of things. Some of them crucial. They literally cannot do a single thing without losing a major thing that directly impacts their citizens.
- Not everything is about the US, you know, EU-internal politics regarding Israel are quite complicated.
  I don't think we managed to officially ban products out of settlements yet but I don't see them anywhere for the simple reason that they have to be labelled as settlement products, not "Made in Israel". Israel threw a pretty fit over that, usually EU action (besides stern letters) takes the form of annoying the Israeli right by helping Palestinians.
  Going against the USA means loss of a lot of things.
  ...none of which the EU can't replace. We've been in plenty a trade war, you're welcome to look up how those ended.
hypocrites?

I'm surprised they haven't used phosphorus on Gaza yet.

- Took longer than I thought it would.
I saw videos of wf being used on gazan civvies. scumbag israelis

Why are they not sending wepons to Palestinians?

To what end?
This isn't something Palestine can fight their way out of, however many weapons they have.
What?
- EU send incredible amount of weapons to Ukraine, citing repelling invasion. So even if we generously forget how most of their members were participating in invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, surely they can send at least some weapons to Palestine?
Because Israel destroying HAMAS or Palestine doesn't threaten EU. Yet.
Because the very same article shows the EU most certainly doesn't like Hamas.
His condemnation of Israel's behaviour came after three days of EU rhetoric that had focused on the "utterly inhuman … shocking … barbarous" nature of Hamas' atrocities, while highlighting Israel's rights rather than its obligations.
He pledged his staff would conduct a swift review of EU aid to Palestine to make sure no money ended up with Hamas via error or deception.
Stopping aid to ordinary Palestinians would be "the best present we could give to Hamas and it would jeopardise our interests and partnerships in the Arab world," he added.
"We want to make sure that, beyond UNRWA, the EU budget does not get to any organisations which has any ties, any links to Hamas," he said.
EU sending weapons is not a matter of who is defending or attacking, only a matter of who they like
- Of course, i was (rhetorically) asking our resident EU shills which claims EU is follwing some kind of beningn international policy.
Biden and the US have delivered and promises more military aid for Israel. What death toll do we want here? https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-speaks-with-israels-netanyahu-us-monitors-situation-2023-10-11/
- Probably as much as possible, especially that Netanyahu is known for unhinged hate and slander for Palestinians and Biden now just repeats it after him.

Also EU

Wait! I know what Borrell will do: expel Israel from Eurovision! That will serve them right and start behaving!

I don't expect much more from anything leaded by Borrell. We know him well in Spain.

Wtf is israel in Eurovision?
- Because they're an EBU member and the EBU includes the whole Mediterranean, have a map. The reason the Arab states don't compete in Eurovision isn't because they're not allowed to, but because Israel participates. Morocco and Lebanon even are founding members, Israel joined in 1957 (look under "past members" Israel switched organisations in 2017).
  Australia got special dispensation to participate even though they're only an associated member because they've been nuts about the contest for ages, constantly hitting very high viewer numbers.
- Yes, and Australia is as well. :D
- For some reason they are members of the European broadcasting union

Stand up to Zionists!

"Do unto others as others have done unto you.". -- Israel

That was not the best takeaway, but here we are.

Palestine cut off Israel's water and electricity?
- Palestine imprisoned millions of Israelis for generations, bombing them every few days?

No you don't understand, what is Israel supposed to do when Palestine does that?

But don't you wonder why Palestine is doing that in the first place? It's because Israel did that thing before.

But Israel did that thing because Palestine did that other thing

But Palestine had no option but to do that because of what Israel did months before

But Israel had done that because of years of that

But how is that Palestine's problem? They only did that because what else would've they done?

...

I'm going to be real, I doubt they can even muster the will to write a strongly worded letter with the kinds of members who make up the EU.

Blocking neccesities for civiliana like water is a war crime. Encircling enemy state after it lanched offensive to yours is not, otherwise e.g. allies pushing Nazis all the way back to Berlin was also crime.

Israel claims that Hamas is not a legitimate government and definitely not a state. They claim and control the territory of Gaza and consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
So by their own definition, this is a ~~war crime~~ crime against humanity.
- Kinda like the extermination of a people including taking hostages, torturing hostages, raping hostages, and executing hostages?
  Two wrongs dont make a right, but Israel is by no means worse than HAMAS.

Much like that UN report classifying Israel's action against Palestinians as Apartheid (which is criminal in international law), much will be said and very little will be done about this. The state of Israel has been going against international law and agreements for almost its entire existence: see its support for illegal colonies and the walling and ghettoization of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel's government has confidence that the US and NATO won't do anything to stop their criminal actions against Palestinians because that is what they've been doing for the last half century. They will continue to coddle Israel until it fulfills its goal of completely exterminating or expelling Palestinians from the land between the river and the sea, forging a state with a single ethnicity, culture and religion out of Palestine.

PS: just before anyone claims it: no, I do not support gratuitous acts of terrorism by Hamas, just as I don't support Israel's terrorism against Palestinians. All I'm trying to do is point out the historical context of the current conflict, so that nothing is distorted.

and then they won't do anything.

It is war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crime
- More specifically,
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_punishment
- Does it say anything in there about slaughtering non-combatants? Because that's what Hamas did.
  There are going to be a lot of things you don't like that will happen in the following days. But, the dogs of war are off the leash.

Drop a nuke directly on that temple/mosque site they all argue about. End of story. Everyone loses.

Is it UNWRA or UNRWA or are they two different agencies because wow with this article.