EU in early talks to deploy mission to Rafah crossing amid US push

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
24 May 2024 22:03

The European Union previously had a "civilian force" operating at the Rafah crossing until 2007.

Closed gates of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on October 10, 2023 (AFP)

The European Union is in preliminary discussions to deploy a mission to the Rafah Crossing, but it will not occur before the war on Gaza ends, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a senior EU official.

The bloc's foreign ministers will convene for their monthly meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss ways to enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Two European diplomats, according to the news agency, said the United States had proposed the EU reactivate its European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) in Rafah, which halted operations in 2007 after the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas became the Strip's governing party.

The Israeli occupation launched an invasion of Rafah almost three weeks ago and closed the city's crossing with Egypt after occupying it. At the same time, Israelis shut down the Karem Abu Salem crossing. The two crossings are the only land routes to deliver aid to southern Gaza, leaving over 1.5 million people with no aid for weeks.

"Even if we now have people on the ground talking to the different parties and seeing how it could be done, we are in a very preliminary part of the story," Reuters quoted the senior official as saying.

He added that the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell could be given a mandate by the members in the meetings to devise "some kind of operative conclusions that could allow the mission to deploy."

Deployment could not happen "in the current circumstances, not in war circumstances," he continued. "We are talking about the future."

The issue will be on the agenda, but there is nothing concrete to discuss, three EU diplomats said as per Reuters, with one adding that it was a "long shot".

All bloc nations will need to approve the plan for it to pass. Because EUBAM is a "civilian mission, its personnel and equipment" would need to be adapted to address the potentially hazardous conditions of the operation. Egypt will also have to green-light the mission, the officials said.

Two American officials stated that the White House is exploring various options to ensure the reopening of the Rafah crossing. However, no conclusive plans have been finalized at this time.

In a momentous emergency verdict on South Africa's complaint against "Israel" of genocide, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Tel Aviv on Friday to immediately halt its military assault on Rafah.

Nawaf Salam, the high court's president, said the occupation entity shall "immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Reuters reported on May 16, citing Egyptian sources, that Cairo rejected an Israeli proposal for joint coordination to reopen the Rafah crossing between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Palestinian side in Gaza, along with managing its future operation.

Egypt stressed that the closure of Rafah is solely due to the occupation's ground attack on Rafah, repeatedly cautioning that the offensive seeks to empty Gaza and forcibly displace Palestinians into the North African country.