The prime ministers of Spain and Ireland have called on the European Union to urgently confront Israel’s “grave and imminent threat” in Gaza’s overcrowded southern town of Rafah.
Pedro Sánchez and Ireland’s Leo Varadkar said in a joint letter that they are “deeply concerned at the deteriorating situation” in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The expanded Israeli military operation in the Rafah area poses a grave and imminent threat that the international community must urgently confront.”
The prime ministers of the two EU member states sent the letter to the EU Commission.
Having confirmed receipt of the letter, an EU spokesman said that Brussels “urge all sides when it comes to Israel to respect international law.”
He said, “We note that there must be respect, there must be accountability for violations of international law.”
In separate remarks to Ireland’s parliament, Varadkar said that Israeli leaders “have become blinded by rage.”
He said that it was “very clear” to him that the regime “is not listening to any country in the world.”
“There is a serious risk of a massacre occurring in Rafah if a ground assault were to occur.”
A growing number of countries and international organizations are now calling on Israel to halt its planned ground offensive on Gaza’s southern town of Rafah — the last refuge of displaced Palestinians.
Rafah is currently home to more than half of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.4 million, who has been forcibly displaced. The regime’s military forces have already been bombarding the overcrowded city with airstrikes for weeks.
Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a post on X that any military offensive in Rafah could lead to a “slaughter in Gaza.”
He also said that such an offensive “could also leave an already fragile humanitarian operation at death’s door.”
Griffiths urged the regime leaders to listen to the international community’s warnings against “the dangerous consequences” of a ground invasion.
He said that “history will not be kind” if those calls are ignored.
More than 28,570 Palestinians have been killed in the regime’s airstrikes on Gaza since early October, says the Gaza health ministry.
