Calls for Hamas to be ‘eliminated’
The parliament "condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the despicable terrorist attacks committed by the terrorist group Hamas against Israel and expresses its support for the State of Israel and its people..."
(TIMES OF ISRAEL, AGENCIES) – The European Parliament has called for the Hamas terror group to be “eliminated” in a scathing rebuke of its devastating onslaught on southern Israel on October 7.
In a non-binding resolution passed 500-21 last Thursday, the body demanded the “unconditional release” of hostages held in Gaza, blasting their kidnapping as a war crime while expressing sympathy for civilian victims on both sides of the conflict.
The parliament “condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the despicable terrorist attacks committed by the terrorist group Hamas against Israel and expresses its support for the State of Israel and its people [and] reiterates that the terrorist organisation Hamas needs to be eliminated.”
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw about 2500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1400 people and seizing more than 200 hostages of all ages and many nationalities under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians – men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and more than 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what US President Joe Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust”.
In the 13 days since, Israel has responded with an intense bombing campaign aimed at destroying Hamas’s infrastructure. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas, and says it is targeting all areas of Gaza where Hamas operates, while seeking to minimise harm to civilians.
The EU includes Hamas on its terror blacklist, but it has been removed several times in the past decade as the result of court rulings and appeals.
Expressing concern over conditions for civilians in the coastal enclave, the parliament’s resolution called for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza to allow aid to reach the needy and stressed that Israel’s right to defend itself can only be done within the strictures of international law.
The call for a “humanitarian pause” stopped short of demanding a complete cease-fire. The parliament also urged for an independent probe into last Tuesday evening’s blast at Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital.
Hamas health authorities claimed that the hospital had been targeted by Israeli airstrikes, and put the death toll at 500, an account that was widely reported worldwide.
But the US intelligence community believes that anywhere from 100-300 people were killed at the hospital, US media reported last Thursday, and a European official put the toll at 50 or less, countering claims that 10 times that number were killed in what is increasingly recognised as a blast caused by a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch.
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