Borrell boldly accused Israel of funding Hamas

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a speech last year that Israel financed the creation of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that Israel financed the creation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, publicly contradicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has denied such allegations.

Opponents of the Israeli government and some world media accused the Netanyahu government of supporting Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, for years, including allowing Qatar to finance Gaza.

“Israel has allowed suitcases containing millions of Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its checkpoints since 2018 to preserve a fragile truce with the sector’s Hamas rulers,” claimed a Times of Israel article dated October 8, the day after Hamas carried out violent attacks against Israel.

Netanyahu has categorically denied allowing Qatar to fund Hamas to divide the Palestinians into rival political camps. But the Israeli leader said in 2019 at a Likud party conference: “Anyone who wants to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state must support the strengthening of Hamas.”

Benjamin Netanyahu previously denied accusations from his opponents in Israel and some world media that his government spent years actively supporting Hamas in Gaza, Sky News notes.

“Yes, Hamas was funded by the Israeli government in an attempt to weaken the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority,” Josep Borrell said in a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain, without elaborating further on the alleged funding.

Meanwhile, Sky News notes, the EU is also set to introduce a special sanctions regime against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, with an official saying the first measures will be aimed at six people involved in financing Hamas.

“What we are doing now was done today, and I think it will be announced in the coming hours,” [заключается в том, что] we introduced a special regime for Hamas. We have listed six people,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official added that all six people were from Arab or African countries.

In his speech, Josep Borrell added that the only peaceful solution is the creation of a Palestinian state, Reuters notes.

“We only believe that a two-state solution imposed from outside will bring peace, even though Israel insists on the negative,” the head of European diplomacy said.

As Reuters recalls, Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,400 people and taking about 240 hostages on the deadliest day in Israeli history. The Israeli government launched a counteroffensive that has since killed more than 24,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after a brief civil war with forces loyal to the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Israel has criticized various countries, including Borrell’s native Spain, for what it says are sympathy for Hamas.

As Politico highlights, Josep Borrell’s comments came just days before EU foreign ministers were scheduled to hold several meetings with their counterparts from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and key Arab countries in Brussels. Ministers are set to discuss on Monday the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, where Israeli troops have waged a relentless campaign of bombing and ground attacks for months, and the prospects for a future peace settlement.

On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza – provided that Hamas is eliminated and all hostages are released. The resolution comes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the idea of ​​independent Palestinian statehood, thereby rejecting the push for a Palestinian state by the United States and the EU.

According to Politico, Josep Borrell, who has been the EU’s foreign policy chief since 2019, has a long record of undiplomatic moments, including when he compared Europe to a “garden” and called the rest of the world a “jungle.”