The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said he is “horrified” after an Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering residents in Gaza on Saturday, which Palestinian authorities said killed up to 100 people.
“At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres,” he wrote on X.
“We are dismayed by the terrible overall death toll,” he added, saying that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October.
The Palestinian health ministry, which is controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas, puts the death toll in Gaza at more than 39,600. The figure does not distinguish between civilians and fighters and cannot be independently verified.
Israel has repeatedly said it attacks such facilities because its intelligence has revealed that Hamas operatives are hiding there, using civilians as shields.
Borrell said “a ceasefire is the only way to stop the killing of civilians and secure the hostages’ release.”
The EU diplomat also used the post to denounce Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who on Thursday lobbied against a ceasefire, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to fall into a “dangerous trap” with a ceasefire deal.
Borrell condemned Smotrich’s comments, saying they are “against the interest of the Israeli people.”
