Members of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg voted in favour of an unconditional, "immediate and permanent" ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday evening – a first in the hemicycle.
The non-binding call to lay down arms was contained in an amendment to the European Parliament's annual report on human rights and democracy in the world.
The Left Group had tabled this amendment to article 62 of the report, stipulating that MEPs call for "an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, allowing uninterrupted access to food and water for its inhabitants."
"We have opened a breach. Let's not give up. Europe must force Israel to implement [the ceasefire]", reacted Belgian MEP Marc Botenga (PTB) on X, who tabled the amendment with six other MEPs from his group.
This is the first time that the European Parliament has voted in favour of an unconditional ceasefire. On 18 January, the institution voted in favour of a permanent ceasefire, but only on the condition that the Israeli hostages were released and Hamas was dismantled, as the EU considers it to be a terrorist organisation.
Peter Stano, EU’s lead spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, explained in January that the European Parliament and the Council are different institutions with different competencies. “The decisions and positions of the EU on foreign policy, security and defense are formed by the governments of the EU member states represented by their foreign ministers,” he told The Brussels Times.
At a session on Thursday at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, EU reiterated its call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages, without any precondition. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) must be granted access to the hostages. The EU official added that the use of civilians as human shields by Hamas is a particularly deplorable atrocity.
Since Hamas' bloody attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which claimed some 1,200 lives, the Israeli response has turned Gaza into a "zone of death", according to the UN, and killed 30,000 Palestinians – a significant proportion of which are children – according to the latest Hamas-led Ministry of Health figures. 1.7 million of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million inhabitants have been forced to flee their homes.
The health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel says that a around a third of the casualties are Hamas militants.
The main mediators in the war, the United States and Qatar, are hoping to secure a truce enabling the release of hostages held in Gaza before the start of Ramadan, which begins around 11 March.
