Brussels - Gaza: Europe and the Arabs - Agencies
Discussions by foreign ministers of European Union member states began this morning in Brussels and will include an exchange of views on: the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the situation in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the region, the Sahel region, and the foreign policy dimension of economic security. The ministers will evaluate the current situation in light of the latest developments and focus on the difficult humanitarian situation of the Palestinians. In the same context, France intends to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The French Foreign Minister will address this issue at the European level on Monday during Meeting in Brussels, the Foreign Ministry announced
"These acts of violence must stop, and the Israeli authorities must ensure this and prosecute their perpetrators," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.
She added that on France's part, it also bears its responsibility, as it intends to take measures such as freezing assets at the French level as well as at the European level, noting that Minister Catherine Colonna will discuss this issue in the Council of Foreign Ministers on Monday in Brussels.
She explained that work is underway to identify the targeted figures, and said, "We are continuing our discussions with our European partners and hope that we can move forward at the national and European levels."
France has always condemned the acts of violence committed by extremist Israeli settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank. This comes as the President of the United Nations General Assembly announced that tomorrow, Tuesday, the forty-fifth plenary session of the tenth emergency special session will be held on: “Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the land.” Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The resumption of the emergency special session, at three in the afternoon on Tuesday, New York time, comes at the request of both Egyptian Ambassador Osama Abdel Khaleq - who holds the rotating presidency of the Arab Group, and Mauritanian Ambassador Sidi Ould Mohamed Lagdhaf - who holds the rotating presidency of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation group.
The tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly was held for the first time in April 1997 at the request of the Permanent Representative of Qatar after a series of Security Council and General Assembly sessions to consider the start of construction of the Har Homa settlement south of occupied East Jerusalem.
The session resumed on October 26, 2023, when the General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Protecting Civilians and Upholding Legal and Humanitarian Obligations.”
Pursuant to its resolution entitled “United for Peace” of 3 November 1950, the General Assembly may convene an “emergency special session” if there appears to be a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression, and the Security Council is unable It cannot be acted upon due to a negative vote (use of veto) by a permanent member. The General Assembly has so far held 11 emergency special sessions, five of which are on the Middle East.
This came after the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said that there is no longer a (real) humanitarian operation in southern Gaza that “can be called by that name,” warning that the humanitarian program there “is no longer effective” and that it has become only a “response.” "For opportunities."
The World Food Program said that hunger is widespread throughout the Gaza Strip and that people feel increasingly desperate in trying to find food to feed their families. The program reported that cases of drought and malnutrition were rapidly increasing in the sector.
Monitoring conducted by the program via telephone shows that between 83 and 97% of families do not consume enough food, and in some areas up to 90% of families reported not eating any food for an entire day and night. 18% of those families experienced these conditions in More than 10 days during the past month.

While Nasser Al-Qudwa, the former Palestinian Foreign Minister, said that the use of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter by the Secretary-General has nothing to do with what will emerge from the Security Council.
The former Palestinian Foreign Minister added, during the Happening in Egypt program, which was broadcast on Thursday evening  on ABC Egypt, that Article 99 of the United Nations Charter draws the attention of the Security Council to a specific situation and thus the Council is forced to convene.
Nasser Al-Qudwa explained that the United Nations’ use of Article 99 arouses the anger of Israel, which considers the mandate of Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, a threat to world peace.