Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers set to join Brussels meeting

Rare encounter looms as EU strikes deal with Israel for more aid to enter Gaza

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas with Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar during a visit to Jerusalem in March. AFP

Foreign ministers from Israel and Palestine are expected to attend a dinner in Brussels on Monday in a rare diplomatic setting as the Gaza war continues.

They have both confirmed their attendance at an EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meeting, The National understands.

While it appears that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and his Palestinian counterpart Varsen Aghabekian will be in the same room, it remains unclear whether they will speak.

Varsen Aghabekian, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, is due to attend Monday's meeting. EPA

The meeting comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for a truce soon in Gaza as talks continued in Qatar.

“We would like for us as Palestinians to speak for ourselves at this meeting and send a message to Europeans about the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and ask that they take measures against Israel,” a Palestinian official told Euronews.

The aim of the Brussels meeting is to strengthen relations between the EU and the 10 partner countries in the Mediterranean region.

They include Algeria, Egypt and Jordan. Syria has been reintegrated since the fall of the Assad regime in December and its Foreign Minister Assad Al Shibani is expected to attend.

The last such meeting took place in November 2022 in Barcelona, just under a year before the October 7 Hamas-led attacks against Israel.

A Palestinian man wounded while trying to get aid receives treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. AFP

Relations between Israel and the EU appear to have warmed since Kaja Kallas was appointed the bloc's foreign affairs chief in December.

Ms Kallas on Thursday announced that she had struck a deal with Israel to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. A meeting of the EU's 27 foreign ministers on Tuesday is set to discuss options to respond to Israel's human rights violations in Gaza.

There is little expectation that Tuesday's meeting will lead to concrete decisions targeting Israel. Ms Kallas has said that measures would be discussed only if the situation did not improve in Gaza, though some European ministers said they would closely watch the implementation of the aid deal.

Most European countries have said they do not approve of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's new aid distribution operation, during which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

Ms Kallas this week put forward 10 options to member states, including a full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which appeared unlikely because it needed consensus from the 27 members.

Suspending trade relations or Israel's participation in the Erasmus+ student exchange or Horizon academic research programmes would require a qualified majority vote.

Mr Saar was in Brussels in February for the first EU-Israel high level talks in years, followed by a similar meeting with Palestine's Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.