EU chief von der Leyen says Hamas attack an ‘act of war’ that reflects ‘an ancient evil’

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says that the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s killing of Israeli civilians was a coldblooded act of war and reflected an “ancient evil.”

“We have to be clear in defining this kind of horror,” she said. “And there can only be one response to it. Europe stands with Israel. And we fully support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Addressing the start of a meeting of European commissioners, von der Leyen also supported a full review of the EU’s multi-million-euro financial support for Palestinian projects.

“Hamas terrorists killed women and children in their homes. They hunted hundreds of young men and women who were celebrating life and music,” von der Leyen tells the European Commission.

“They took hostage hundreds of innocents, whose fate is still unknown,” she says.

“These innocents were killed for one single reason: For being Jewish and living in the State of Israel. It is an ancient evil, which reminds us of the darkest past and shocks all of us to the core.”