Israel’s actions during its war in Gaza have likely breached previous commitments to uphold human rights, a much-anticipated review by European Union officials has found.
The findings will give momentum to a growing group of EU states pushing for a stronger response to the Gaza war, raising the prospect of the bloc taking action against Israel for the first time since the start of the conflict.
The review, a portion of which has been seen by The Irish Times, said evidence “indicates” that Israel has failed to respect human rights during its 20-month bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
Focus will now likely turn to potential consequences for Israel, which EU states have to date been unable to find common ground on.
The review examined whether Israel’s actions in the Palestinian enclave had broken guarantees made about upholding human rights as part of the EU’s “association agreement” with Israel. The agreement governs relations between the two sides and includes a free trade deal and access to research funding.
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A majority of EU states last month supported a review taking place to determine whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza had broken human rights commitments signed up to as part of the agreement.
The review was carried out by officials from the EU diplomatic corps, which is led by foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas. It was shared with diplomats from EU states on Friday evening.
It concluded: “On the basis of the assessments made by the independent international institutions ... There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel association agreement.”
The findings will be debated at a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris is expected to advocate for the EU to use what leverage it has to put pressure on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
It is expected ministers will ask Ms Kallas to come back to a further meeting next month, with a set of proposed actions the EU could take against Israel, such as possibly suspending parts of the association deal.
A group of nine states, including Ireland, Spain and Belgium, have suggested the EU needs to do more to cut off trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other occupied Palestinian territories.
More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which began after Hamas militants controlling the enclave attacked southern Israel on October 7th, 2023.
The governments of Ireland and Spain first called for a review of the EU-Israel deal in February of last year, but received little backing at the time.
The worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, exacerbated by Israel’s recent blockade preventing food and aid from getting into the territory for several weeks, saw growing support within the EU to exert political pressure on Israel to change course.
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Some of Israel’s staunchest allies – Germany, Hungary and Czechia – had opposed the review taking place, as did the governments of Italy and Greece.
