Brussels, 22 June 2025.
The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) expresses its deep alarm with the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where, for more than twenty months, the civilian population has been subjected to relentless suffering, displacement and deprivation due to Israel’s military operations and blockade of Gaza. Today, we are counting an estimated 62,614 Palestinians killed, including 17,492 children and 128,923 wounded, and countless of indirect deaths due to starvation, lack of healthcare, and other consequences of this war raged against the Palestinians.
The large-scale destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, water systems, and critical infrastructure has left Gaza with no real hope of reconstruction. For nearly two years, Palestinians have been subjected to systematic restrictions in food, water, electricity and medical supplies. Aid convoys are repeatedly obstructed or attacked. Aid distribution, now done by private actors operating outside the humanitarian principle of neutrality, has led to the death of some 800 people who were seeking aid. Poverty must never be used as a weapon.
Entire Palestinian communities have been pushed to the edge of famine. International legal experts, including Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, have raised serious concerns that, based on documented patterns of conduct and intent, what is happening is a genocide of the Palestinian population.
Additionally, to the attacks, unlawful arrests and the killing of civilians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there has also been an escalation of settlement construction with all the repercussions this implies. In her last report, Albanese also exposes over 60 corporations for enabling and profiting from the occupation of these territories and the genocide of the Palestinian people.
This genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza are being televised, making us all witnesses to this dramatic situation.
We cannot stay silent.
As EAPN we also express deep concern with the attacks against civil society actors, the killing of over 224 humanitarian aid workers, including 179 employees of UNRWA, as well as more than 200 journalists and media workers and 120 academics.
On 15 July 2025, EU foreign ministers in Brussels reviewed 10 potential actions under the EU-Israel Association Agreement but fail to impose sanctions, opting to hold off pending progress from Israel on improving humanitarian conditions in Gaza. This position has been criticized by international organisations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, leading to question the potential complicity of Member state in crimes in Gaza. We appeal for the provision of conditions for access to basic services and humanitarian assistance for all who need it. It is essential that the security and enabling of unhindered action of civil society actors be guaranteed during their stay in Gaza.
Furthermore, we strongly condemn the incident involving 12 human rights defenders on board the Madleen Flotilla, who were detained by Israeli authorities on 8 June 2025 while in international waters, in violation of international law. Among the detainees were 10 European citizens, including MEP Rima Hassan (The Left). On 13 July 2025, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition launched a new ship, Handala from Syracuse, Italy. It carries activists, legal observers, medical aid, and supplies aimed at breaking the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We hope the EU to backup this humanitarian mission, and a change from an approach of complicity with Israel actions. EAPN firmly believes that humanitarian action must be protected, not punished. For months now human rights defenders and peace activists have also been subjected to arrest and detention in Europe, including in Germany, France, and Belgium.
Solidarity is not a crime.
As EAPN we call for:
- Immediate cease fire.
- Return of the refugees safely.
- End of the military occupation and colonisation.
- Re-examination of the economic partnership between EU-Israel.
- Arms embargo against Israel to end any complicity of European States in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
At EAPN, we work to combat poverty, inequality and social exclusion in all its forms. That work cannot stop at borders. We recognise that people living under siege, occupation, or displacement often face the most severe forms of poverty and denial of rights. Upholding their dignity is part of our core mission.
Justice and dignity for all are non-negotiable.
