EU policy chief: Israel’s call to evacuate northern Gaza in one day ‘utterly impossible’

By AFP 14 October 2023, 7:24 am Edit

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell attends the EU-China High-Level Strategic Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing on October 13, 2023. (Pedro Pardo/AFP)

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says that a plan by Israel to evacuate more than one million people out of northern Gaza in a single day was “utterly impossible to implement.”

Israel warned residents in the area to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

“I am saying that, representing the official position of the European Union… [the evacuation plan] is utterly, utterly impossible to implement,” Borrell tells a press conference in Beijing on the final day of a three-day diplomatic visit to China.

“To imagine that you could move one million people in 24 hours in a situation like Gaza can only be a humanitarian crisis,” he adds.