EU's Kallas urges Israel to implement humanitarian aid deal for Gaza

European Union chief diplomat Kaja Kallas called on Israel on Tuesday to follow through with an agreement reached last week to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"It's not about the paper, but actually [the] implementation of the paper," she said, as she arrived at a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

Under the deal, Israel agreed to let more aid trucks enter Gaza, open more border crossings, improve the distribution of food supplies, resume fuel deliveries and allow repair works to power and water supply facilities.

There were "some positive signs," Kallas said, "but of course, we need to see more in order to see real improvement for the people on the ground."

Kallas described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as "catastrophic."

"As long as it hasn't really improved, then we haven't all done enough," she stated, adding that it was much harder to provide humanitarian aid since there is no ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas in place.

EU member states have increased their pressure on the Israeli government in recent weeks over the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

An EU internal review into whether Israel still adheres to the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which stipulates that relations between the parties are based on respect for human rights, concluded that Israel's conduct in Gaza does not align with those principles.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the attack on Israel by Hamas and other extremist organizations in October 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage.