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Visits by EU Leaders to Israel Highlight Growing Divisions in Brussels Over War in Gaza
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Isaac Herzog visiting Kibbutz Be’eri. Photo: Reuters/Bernd von Jutrczenka
Visits to Israel by European Union leaders during the last week have illuminated the growing divide in the bloc over the extent of its support for the Jewish state’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The leaders of Spain, Belgium, and Germany have all made the trip in recent days, with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier earning plaudits from his hosts for his remarks while in Israel — in marked contrast to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, who were accused by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen of giving “support to terrorism.”
Soon after arriving in Tel Aviv, Steinmeier traveled to Kibbutz Be’eri in the south of Israel, where at least 130 residents were murdered by Hamas terrorists during their onslaught on Oct. 7. During his tour of the shattered kibbutz on Monday, the German president pledged that Berlin would provide funds for its reconstruction, announcing the sum of seven million Euros to rebuild its art gallery.
“Be’eri and the many other kibbutzim deserve to be not only part of Israel’s history, but above all to be part of Israel’s future,” Steinmeier declared.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who accompanied Steinmeier, described the German leader and his wife, Elke, as “dear friends.”
“We have a dream, Mr. President, to rebuild this place as part of rebuilding the entire Kibbutz Be’eri and the entire region,” Herzog told his guest. “And we will rebuild and we will go back and we will wake up as a nation as a lion, to go back and regain and rebuild these places, so that they will flourish, and send a message of hope and peace to the entire world.”
In response, Steinmeier observed that “it’s not easy to find the words to describe what we heard from those who have the knowledge and who were witnessing the deeds, the murders, the killings, the rapes by Hamas here on Oct. 7.” He added that he hoped to “create conditions [so] that young people, craftsmen from Germany and from Israel, are meeting here to cooperate very closely in this rebuilding process.”
The visits last week by Sanchez and de Croo were shrouded in tension, however, with several observers speaking of a “diplomatic crisis” between Israel and the two EU member states.
Last Friday, the two premiers held a press conference at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt where they strongly condemned Israel’s military response.
De Croo complained that “too many civilians have been killed in this conflict,” adding: “We cannot accept a society is destroyed the way the society of Gaza is being destroyed.”
For his part, Sanchez decried what he called the “indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of children.”
Said Sanchez: “I reiterate Israel’s right to defend itself, but within parameters and limitations imposed by international humanitarian law. And it is not the case.”
The Spanish leader also intimated that Spain would unilaterally recognize an independent Palestinian state if the EU as a whole failed to do so.
Acknowledging that such a move would be “better” if agreed on by all 27 member states, Sanchez then emphasized that “if this is not the case, Spain will make its own decisions.”
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen summoned the Spanish and Belgian Ambassadors for a strong reprimand.
“We condemn the false claims of the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium who give support to terrorism,” Cohen said. “Israel is acting according to international law and fighting a murderous terrorist organization worse than ISIS that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
EU leaders in Brussels have also been underlining their support for a resolution to the conflict that includes an independent Palestinian state.
“The Palestinian people and the Arab neighbors need the reassurance that there will be no forced displacement but a viable perspective, with an independent Palestinian state — Gaza and West Bank reunited — and governed by a reformed Palestinian Authority. And to this end, unacceptable violence by extremists in the West Bank has to stop,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said over the weekend, in a swipe at Israeli settlers in the West Bank. “A peaceful co-existence is only possible with the two-state solution.”
While the EU has backed Israel’s right to defend itself, its concern over the fate of Palestinian civilians in Gaza has grown in parallel with Israel’s escalated bombing campaign.
On Monday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told foreign ministers from Mediterranean countries meeting in Barcelona that he wanted the present truce between Israel and Hamas to evolve into a permanent ceasefire.
“The pause should be extended to make it sustainable and long-lasting while working for a political solution,” Borrell said.
The veteran Spanish politician also echoed von der Leyen in expressing criticism of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.
“I’m appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli government is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements,” Borrell wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are a grave IHL (International Humanitarian Law) breach, and they are Israel’s greatest security liability.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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