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In one Palestinian territory, Gaza, Israeli forces have this week fired on people rushing desperately to collect food aid. In the other, the West Bank, Israel’s far-right government last week announced plans to build 22 new settlements — which are illegal under international law — in the single biggest expansion in the occupied territory in years.
Whichever way Palestinians turn, they face disaster. In essence, Israel is collectively punishing all Gazans and West Bankers for the horrors Hamas committed on October 7 2023, when the militants killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages. That appalling attack was the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Yet with each move, it becomes clearer that the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu is exploiting the moment to pursue the goal of more occupation, possibly annexation and driving Palestinians from their land. And with each new assault on Palestinian society, and suspected war crime, the notion of the western-backed international rules-based order becomes more hollow.
For 20 months, western states have largely stood by Israel as its war against Hamas has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.1mn population multiple times and killed more than 54,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. Now, according to international aid agencies and hospital officials in Gaza, desperate and hungry Palestinians have been shot and killed as they marched to aid distribution centres that are part of a contentious US-backed system Israel introduced last week.
Israel has denied at least one of the incidents, while seeking to discredit the media and its critics. It refuses, however, to allow journalists into the besieged strip to verify the information.
The horrors of Gaza have overshadowed Israel’s assault in the West Bank. But this territory has also endured its deadliest period in two decades. Israel, alleging it is fighting militants, has expanded its operations, killing hundreds of people and forcing thousands from their homes. Separately, Jewish settlers, emboldened by the government, have gone on the rampage, killing and harassing Palestinians, driving yet more from their land.
The creeping annexation of the West Bank is accelerating at an alarming rate, destroying the foundations on which a Palestinian state should be built. Defence minister Israel Katz said the settlement expansion was a “strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
European countries have responded to the latest violence by finally upping the pressure on Netanyahu. EU foreign ministers have triggered a review of Israel’s association agreement with the bloc. The UK has halted talks on a new trade deal and imposed sanctions on settlers and settler entities.
But they should be doing more. For years, Israel’s European allies have turned a blind eye to the illegal settler expansion. They still, inexplicably, import goods from settlements.
It is time to back rhetoric with action. Hamas’s abhorrent behaviour and the threat of Palestinian militancy should not absolve Israel of its own conduct. With US President Donald Trump paying little heed to the humanitarian catastrophe, European states must show Israel that its actions bear consequences. They should ban trade with settlements and sanction extremist settler entities. They should halve offensive weapons sales to Israel and sanction ultranationalists in the government who are fuelling the Gaza and West Bank violence.
Finally, they should lead the way in formally recognising a Palestinian state, before there is nothing left to recognise. It would be a symbolic move. But it would underline Europe’s commitment to a two-state solution as the only sustainable future. It would send a message to Israel, too, that the concepts of international law and justice still have meaning.