Arminka Helic is a member of the House of Lords who served as a special adviser to Foreign Secretary William Hague. Jeremy Konyndyk is president of Refugees International and a former senior U.S. humanitarian official.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, over 70 senior officials — from heads of state to foreign ministers — have made trips to Kyiv.
Though it may not seem like it, visits like these have substantive and symbolic value. They show solidarity with victims of war, while enabling officials to ground their policy assumptions in truth.
And yet, even as EU leaders debate whether Israel’s conduct in Gaza violates the EU-Israel Association Agreement — the deal governing trade relations between the two countries — not one European foreign minister has visited to assess the humanitarian situation first-hand.
This absence isn’t just shameful — it’s a missed opportunity to use Europe’s leverage.
The EU is Israel’s largest global trading partner, accounting for a third of Israeli trade. Israel, by contrast, accounts for less than 1 percent of the EU’s global trade. And with a growing number of member countries believing Israel’s conduct in the war violates the deal’s provisions, its terms are now falling under scrutiny.
In response to this, Israel has hastily committed to a number of steps that would expand humanitarian access in Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs, ensuring the protection of aid workers and rebuilding vital infrastructure.
Yet, change on the ground has so far been negligible, and Israel continues to block most aid. Meanwhile, starvation is accelerating, children are dying of malnutrition, and the U.N. is warning that Gaza is entering “a worst-case scenario of famine.”
Israel’s new commitments to the EU are little more than empty gestures if Europe won’t meaningfully monitor and enforce them.
The bloc’s solidarity with Israel after the terror attack of Oct. 7, 2023 — which saw several thousand rockets sent into Israel, almost 1,200 people murdered and more than 250 taken hostage — was a sincere and deeply felt reaction to the brutality of Hamas.
But that solidarity in response to Hamas’s atrocities is now devolving into complicity with Isreal’s atrocities.
Israel’s ensuing military campaign has devastated Gaza, killing over 60,000 Palestinians, maiming and orphaning tens of thousands of children, and pushing millions toward starvation. Gaza’s infrastructure has been obliterated. Schools, homes and hospitals lie in ruins. Humanitarian aid is restricted and sporadic, with more than half-a-million people are enduring famine-like conditions.
There’s also little to suggest a major shift by Israel in the weeks since EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas announced the new agreement. Deaths by malnutrition in Gaza have only accelerated as Israel continues to block most food, water and aid from reaching those in need.
Just this week, the U.N. confirmed that since May 2025, the Israeli military killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza who were trying to access food. Nearly 200 people have been documented to have died of hunger, including 96 children. And doctors describe people collapsing in the streets from lack of food and water. They’re struggling to tend to the sick and dying, while also trying to find food for themselves and their families.
The EU-Israel agreement can’t become a blank check for Israeli impunity. Europe’s leaders must insist on accountability, oversight and verification to ensure that Israel is meeting basic expectations of humanitarian conduct.
One simple way to facilitate this would be to allow senior officials — including Kallas — into Gaza to see the conditions for themselves. In fact, EU leaders should demand it. If Israel can facilitate a visit by senior U.S. officials, as it did in recent weeks, surely it can also allow a visit by EU diplomats too.
The EU’s credibility and its moral authority — not to mention Gaza’s entire population — are on the line.
For months now (and for decades prior), the bloc has spoken of a two-state solution, of preserving the possibility of peace, of preventing mass atrocities. These ambitions must be matched with action.
Thankfully, there are signs of movement: First, in late July, Kallas posted: “The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible…. All options remain on the table if Israel doesn’t deliver on its pledges.” Then, last month, the U.K., France and Canada warned that if Israel didn’t cease its offensive and lift restrictions on aid, they’d pursue “further concrete actions.” Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged as early as May that Israel’s actions in Gaza “can no longer be justified by the fight against Hamas.”
These statements are all welcome — but words alone won’t stop the bombs.
It’s time for Western leaders to witness this firsthand. Let them hear from doctors, aid workers and Palestinian civilians. Let them bring those testimonies back to their parliaments and public. Let them see if Israel is upholding its end of the bargain.
Europe has leverage. It’s long overdue that the bloc uses it.
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