In Cairo, Omar Shaban meets a high-level European delegation from Brussels and Jerusalem

Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies and adviser to the European Institute of Peace, met yesterday, Tuesday, in Cairo with a high-level European delegation headed by Ms Henrike Trautmann,

the European Union's adviser for reconstruction programmes in the Middle East, together with Mr James Rizzo, deputy head of mission in Jerusalem, Mr Thomas Kirchner, head of the governance department at the Jerusalem office, and Mr Charles de Chanay, head of the Gaza and Middle East reconstruction-programme team at the Brussels office — within the continuing efforts to shed light on the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip caused by the Israeli war, now in its 415th day. The discussion took up the necessity of stopping the catastrophic war on the Gaza Strip at the earliest moment: the European Union must exert every means of pressure on the Israeli war government to halt the aggression and permit the entry of the humanitarian aid held up at the crossings for many months.

It was stressed that the European Union must multiply its financial and technical contributions in support of relief efforts under war conditions, and work to ease the entry of aid, medicines, and water and electricity services — the very conditions of life — for barring their entry amounts to a clear violation of every international covenant and treaty. The Palestinian people's appreciation of the European Union was affirmed for its support of the Palestinian National Authority, UNRWA, and the refugees at home and in the diaspora. The challenges facing some 120,000 Palestinians present in Egypt were presented — their need for support in education and medical treatment, and the importance of their role in the reconstruction phase, since most await return to the homeland to help ease the suffering our Palestinian people live through in the Gaza Strip because of the continuing aggression. Note was also made of the refusal of several European embassies in Cairo to grant visas to Palestinians present in Cairo because of the war — and of the need for the European Union to continue supporting the National Authority, enabling it to carry out the political and constitutional reforms Palestinians demand and to complete the building of the institutions of the Palestinian state.