EU urges Israel to guarantee safe passage of aid after ceasefire

Good morning. News to start: The EU is drawing up last-ditch contingency plans should Hungary’s Viktor Orbán make good on a threat to void all sanctions against Russia at the end of this month — including an 81-year-old law reliant on the Belgian king.

Today the EU’s crisis commissioner tells Laura that the EU wants to ramp up aid to Gaza in response to a shaky ceasefire, and our Brussels colleague sends a dispatch from Poland’s fortified eastern border.

Urgent access

The EU has announced fresh aid to Gaza after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas — but it’s still unclear whether the much needed goods can actually be delivered, writes Laura Dubois.

Context: Mediators on Wednesday announced a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Details still need to be finalised, and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the deal, which includes the freeing of hostages.

EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib yesterday called on the Israeli authorities to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza “as soon as possible”, adding that she had not yet heard from them whether aid deliveries would get safe passage.

“What is important now is what is long overdue: the release of the hostages, and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid,” Lahbib told journalists. “We need to have an access because we are seeing a dramatic situation there with signs of famine.”

Israel has limited the ability of aid groups to deliver crucial goods to Gaza despite repeated warnings about the catastrophic conditions in the strip, some 85 per cent of which has been destroyed.

Speaking after a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Brussels, Lahbib said that the EU had allocated an additional €120mn for shelter, water, sanitation and medical purposes, but was unable to deliver the goods. “We now need to have access to those most in need.”

“We have been calling for unlimited humanitarian access for months, that is the application of international humanitarian right which all parties to the conflict subscribe to,” Lahbib said.

She said that some 600 trucks should enter Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement. “We will judge this ceasefire on the implementation on the ground,” she added.

The Belgian politician also lamented Israel’s ban of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “My first hope is that the Israeli authorities are going to reconsider this law, or at least postpone the implementation of this law and to wait how the ceasefire will be implemented,” she said.

Chart du jour: Bling ring

European stocks hit their highest level in a month yesterday, driven by heavyweight luxury companies such as LVMH and Hermès.

Iron curtain

A new steel curtain has descended along the EU’s eastern border, aimed at preventing the tens of thousands of attempts from migrants pushed to cross Belarus into Poland last year, writes Alice Hancock. 

Context: Warsaw has frequently sounded the alarm that Russian ally Belarus was sending groups of migrants to cross its border into the EU as a way of increasing pressure on European governments as they sought to maintain support for the war in Ukraine. It has vowed to suspend asylum claims.

A 5m tall fence topped by half a metre of barbed wire and monitored by thermovisual cameras is being constructed along the 186km stretch of Polish-Belarusian border in the Podlaskie region. 

It has elements that “will simply crash and fall down whenever someone climbs on them” to prevent people from mounting the fence, said Brigadier General Sławomir Klekotka, commander of the Podlaskie Border Guard Division. The 2,200-strong Polish border guard, backed up by a 6,000 strong army battalion, patrol the line.

The fence is also being developed into a defensive “shield” by adding secondary lines of barbed wire and concrete “hedgehogs” (heavy anti-tank bollards) and “physical elements” such as mines, according to Colonel Mariusz Ochalski of the Polish military engineering board.

He acknowledged it was “part of” a new Iron Curtain.

The total Eastern Shield defence project will cost more than €2.3bn. Poland has so far paid for it, but Warsaw has requested EU funding, Ochalski said.

Yesterday, in the bleak January snow, there were few attempts to cross the border but at peak intensity they can reach around 550 per day, according to Polish authorities. 

A Polish border guard showed reporters what he said was drone footage of Belarusian officers pointing migrants the way to Poland across rocky and swampy terrain. Casualties from this journey have reduced due to search and rescue missions, the border guards said.

In the run-up to Belarusian elections next week, the guards are on heightened alert for increased arrivals.

What to watch today

1. Ursula von der Leyen and other members of the centre-right European People’s party meet in Berlin.

2. French President Emmanuel Macron visits Lebanon.

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