EU warns: Israeli-occupied West Bank is becoming a 'new Gaza'

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, warned on Tuesday that increased violence in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted meant it risked becoming "a new Gaza."

Borrell said Israel was opening "a new front... with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza -– in rising violence, delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully."

Israel was also "not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza," Borrell added at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Cairo.

He accused "radical members of the Israeli government" of trying to make it "impossible to create a future Palestinian state," which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several cabinet members have painted as a threat to Israel.

Some Israeli ministers have recently called to increase military operations in the West Bank.

"Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza," Borrell said.

"And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers' movements are preparing new settlements," he told the meeting.

"The international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act."

AFP