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As war in Gaza rages, Israeli and Palestinian ministers to attend meeting where EU will push for peace
- Meetings in Brussels come after Israel’s prime minister rejected calls for a future two-state solution
- Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which staged a brutal attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis
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The Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers are to meet their European Union counterparts on Monday as the EU considers potential steps toward a comprehensive peace between the two sides even as the war in Gaza rages on.
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Israel’s Israel Katz and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki will take part separately in a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels largely devoted to the Middle East but also taking stock of the war in Ukraine.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan and the secretary general of the League of Arab States will also attend as the gathering focuses on the consequences of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas from Gaza and Israel’s military response.
Ahead of the meeting, the EU’s diplomatic service sent a discussion paper to its 27 member countries, suggesting a road map to peace in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the heart of the plan is a call for a “preparatory peace conference” to be organised by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, with the United States and United Nations also invited to be conveners of the gathering.
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The conference would go ahead even if Israelis or Palestinians declined to take part. But both parties would be consulted at every step of the talks as delegates sought to draw up a peace plan, the document suggests.
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