BERLIN/TEL AVIV/TEHERAN (Own report) - EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen evokes sharp criticism in the EU with her statements during her trip to Israel last Friday. Von der Leyen had emphasized Israel's right to self-defense, but left the obligation to comply with international law during the operations in the Gaza Strip not mentioned. This corresponds to the public position of Berlin, but torpedoes decisions of the EU. The step weighs heavily: The fact that Israel cuts off the Gaza Strip from water, energy and food breaks international law as well as the fact that countless civilians fall victim to its bombardments. EU politicians warn that von der Leyen once again exposes the Union in the Global South to the accusation of applying double standards. This happens while the Gaza War threatens to spread to other states in the region. Iran is in the process of coordinating forces directed against Israel, for example in Lebanon. Israeli intelligence officers regret having once supported murder and sabotage operations on Iranian territory: These acts would have driven both countries into their current confrontation.
The Gaza Strip is facing a humanitarian disaster. According to official data, at least 2,670 people have died in Israeli air raids in the past eight days; over 9,600 were injured. This means that the number of victims already exceeds that of the 51-day Israeli bombings of 2014. 1] The fact that the Israeli government has cut off the Gaza Strip from water, electricity, fuel, food and medicines leads to disastrous conditions; in the meantime, even hospitals that are overrun by injured people are running out of fuel for their generators, which threatens patients with immediate death, for example in intensive care units. "Without water, energy, food and medicines, thousands will die," warned UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths at the weekend. 2] According to reports, Israel has been allowing some water to flow to the south of the Gaza Strip again since Sunday evening under pressure from the USA; however, this is not enough for supplies. More than half of the 2.3 million inhabitants have been on the run since Israel asked the population in the north of the area to leave their homes immediately. According to reports, even escape routes are bombed.
In addition, the danger that the war will spill over to other states and get completely out of control is still immense. Already last week, there were several battles between the Israeli armed forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah. According to reports by Arab diplomats, Hezbollah openly threatens to respond to an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip with the opening of a second front in northern Israel. Israeli experts assume that the huge Hezbollah missile arsenal - we are talking about perhaps 150,000 pieces - will completely overwhelm the Israeli missile defense, the Iron Dome; then hundreds of missiles, some of which are quite accurate, could reach Israel's major cities, including Tel Aviv. 3] Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatens that his forces would bomb "L Lebanon into the Stone Age" in return in this case. 4]
Iran's role in the context of the Hamas attack and the massacre of far more than a thousand Israeli civilians is still unclear. It is certain that Tehran has supported Hamas not only financially, but also with know-how in rocket production and in the use of drones. 5] According to the New York Times, Iranian sources confirm that the Hamas militiamen have completed part of their preparation for the massacre, which lasted a total of over a year, in Lebanon and Syria. In Lebanon, among other things, they had rehearsed the operation of the paragliders that were used in their eruption from the Gaza Strip. Hizbollah, which cooperates closely with Iran, also taught them their skills in urban guerrilla warfare; in Syria, on the other hand, they trained Hamas units in the attack on Israeli villages and in the taking of civilians hostage. 6] The fact that this could have been done in Tehran without any knowledge of any relevant bodies can be considered unlikely.
In addition, there are reports of regular meetings of Esmail Ghaani, the commander of the Quds Brigades - the elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - with organizations from the Gaza Strip and Hizbollah. Already in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ghaani met members of Palestinian militias in Syria at the end of March and shortly afterwards members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad in Palestine and Hizbollah in Beirut and discussed with them a joint action against Israel. 7] Since August, meetings in this format have been held at least every two weeks - always in Lebanon, with other leaders of the Quds Brigades occasionally participating instead of Ghaani. 8] At least two meetings, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was personally present. It is unclear whether the latest attack on Israel was specifically planned during the talks or whether it was only generally about bringing together more closely against Israel in the future. When Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Beirut last Thursday evening for talks with Hizbollah, he expressly warned that the opening of further fronts was a "real possibility." 9] At the weekend, he met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar.
With regard to Iranian activities, the New York Times recently quoted Israeli intelligence officers as saying that they "regret" their support for Israeli murder and sabotage operations in Iran, which had been carried out in recent years to stop Iran's nuclear program and prevent Tehran from expanding its alliances with Hamas and Hizbollah. The goals had not been achieved, the intelligence services admitted. Instead, their murder and sabotage operations would have led Israel and Iran into a direct confrontation, which now threatens to escalate fatally. 10]
In this situation, in which the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is fatally exacerbated and there is also a threat of an even more extensive war in the Middle East, there is sharp criticism of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the EU. Von der Leyen had repeated her previous language formulas during her visit to Israel on Friday, according to which the EU is "at the side" of the country and supports "Israel's right to self-defense." 11] This corresponds to the position of the Federal Republic, as represented by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, but only half reflects the position of the EU, which expressly insists on compliance with international law in Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip. In doing so, von der Leyen has shown "an unacceptable one-sidedness" that can only cause harm, protested the group leader of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament, Iratxe García, at the weekend. 12] The statement that they set double standards is one of the most common accusations from the Global South against politicians from the EU.