EU’s top diplomat warns Israel can’t defeat Hamas by military means

MUNICH — EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Israel needs a political, not a military, solution to the conflict with Palestinians.

He said conversations about peace in the Middle East have focused on Gaza, where Israel is conducting a military campaign that has killed tens of thousands and created over a million refugees in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians. But Borrell said that the situation in the West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians as well as hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers, is at least as important.

“Yes, we have to end the war in Gaza, but the West Bank is the real obstacle for the two-state solution,” he said during a panel at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday. “The West Bank is boiling.”

He warned that if the U.N. is forced to stop supporting Palestinians in the West Bank, “we could be on the eve of a greater explosion.”

The situation in Israel and Gaza has been a key topic in Munich, where many politicians expressed misgivings about the casualties inflicted by Israel’s retaliatory campaign, but strongly backed pressuring Hamas to return the hostages it seized on October 7.

“The release of hostages, the release of these women is crucial because otherwise we can never save the children in Gaza,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “unwavering support” for Israel.

In Munich, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to discuss freeing hostages.

Borrell has been one of the most outspoken European politicians on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling on the international community, and particularly the U.S., to stop providing arms to Israel in light of the growing number of civilian casualties.

At the security conference, he asked if there was a political space for Europe to support a two-state solution. “If we want to play our geopolitical role on this issue, we have to be more united as we have been in the case of Ukraine,” he said.

Other senior politicians like David Cameron, the U.K. foreign secretary, also called for a two-state solution during the Munich conference.

However, Herzog said that no progress on a two-state solution can be made until the operation in Gaza is completed. “We need to finish eradicating Hamas,” he said at the conference.

On the sidelines of the Munich conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that the Israeli military will continue with a controversial plan to attack the southern city of Rafah, where thousands of refugees are sheltering.

“Israel will have to deal with Rafah because we can’t just leave Hamas there,” he said.

But Borrell warned that there was no military solution to the conflict.

“Hamas is an idea and you don’t kill an idea,” said Borrell. “You have to provide an alternative which is better. And certainly the only alternative is not to destroy Israel as Hamas wants to do.”