EU foreign policy chief urges international community to rethink providing arms to Israel

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday urged the international community to rethink providing arms to Israel, highlighting the large numbers of Palestinians killed in Gaza to date, now at 28,000 and still climbing.

"How many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying, 'too many people are being killed'?" Borrell asked at a press conference.

Borrell said even U.S. President Joe Biden had said of the number of the dead that "this is too much, over the top" and "it is not proportional."

"Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms (to Israel) in order to prevent so many people being killed," he said.

Citing how in 2006, the U.S. decided to stop arms shipments to Israel during the Lebanon War, when Israel did not want to end the war, Borrell said that the "exact same thing" is happening today.

He asked: "Everybody goes to Tel Aviv begging: Please don't do that, protect civilians, don't kill so many! How many is too many? Which is the standard?"

"But Netanyahu doesn't listen to anyone," he added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has consistently rejected calls for peace and insisted Israel will take over the Gaza Strip.

"They are going to evacuate (from Rafah)! Where-to the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people?" Borrell said on Israel's much-criticized plans to evacuate the southern Gaza city of Rafah and launch an offensive.

Borrell also said that "if the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms," citing a Dutch court ordering the halt of distribution of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel from the Netherlands in order to implement a provisional order by the International Court of Justice.

He said every EU member state has its own foreign policy but "it's a little bit contradictory to continue saying that there are too many people being killed, too many people being killed, please take care of people, please don't kill so many."

"Stop saying please and do something."