Israel accuses EU’s Borrell of ‘anti-Semitic’ over Gaza criticism

An Israeli soldier walks in a tunnel which the military says Hamas militants used in the southern Gaza Strip, about a 100 meters from the Philadelphi corridor along the border with Egypt, on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. Image- AP

Days after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed outrage at the killing of UN staff in an Israeli strike in Gaza, Israel’s foreign minister again accused the top diplomat of “anti-Semitism” Saturday.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said “Josep Borrell is an anti-Semite and Israel-hater who consistently tries to pass resolutions and sanctions against Israel in the EU, only to be blocked by most member states,”.

On Thursday, Borrell said he was “outraged” by the killing of six employees from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza the day before. The attack flattened part of the UN-run Al-Jawni School on Wednesday, leaving only a pile of charred rebar and concrete.

Israeli airstrikes pounded central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people.

The strikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis with Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. They followed airstrikes earlier this week that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a United Nations school sheltering displaced on Wednesday.

The Israeli army on Saturday ordered Palestinians sheltering in the northern neighborhoods of Manshiyeh, Beit Lahia and Sheikh Zayed to evacuate south toward Gaza City. The order came after projectiles were fired from the area, the Israeli army said in a post on X. It remains unclear how many people are sheltering in those areas.

Gaza’s civil defence agency and the United Nations said at least 18 people, among them women and children, were killed in the strike, while the Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas terrorists.

Borrell said the Nuseirat strike showed a “disregard of the basic principles” of international humanitarian law.

On Saturday, Katz retorted: “There’s a difference between legitimate criticism… and the anti-Semitic, hate-filled campaign Borrell is leading against Israel – reminiscent of history’s worst anti-Semites.”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more.

Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front.

Gallant told Israeli troops last week that “we are preparing for anything that may happen in the north”.

In a speech in Beirut, Qassem said: “We have no intention of going to war, as we consider that this would not be useful.

“However, if Israel does unleash a war, we will face up to it – and there will be large losses on both sides,” he said.

“If they think such a war would allow the 100,000 displaced people to return home … we issue this warning: prepare to deal with hundreds of thousands more displaced.”

Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.

With inputs from agencies.