Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council on 13 November, Amnesty International has written to High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs, urging them to urgently call for a ceasefire to bring an end to the expanding man-made humanitarian and human rights crisis unfolding in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially in Gaza.
We are deeply concerned about the daily death of hundreds of Palestinian civilians due to Israeli bombing and blockade, the ongoing serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including war crimes committed by all parties to the conflict in the ongoing round of fighting. We are concerned that as the risk of regional escalation increases, more civilians will suffer, as we are already seeing in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In the face of the unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the occupied Gaza Strip that is growing worse by the day, an immediate ceasefire by all parties is vital to save the lives of thousands of civilians and halt the spiralling humanitarian and human rights crisis. We are also concerned with the implication of the crisis in the Middle East upon rights to expression and assembly in Europe.