Katz slams ‘blatant lie’ after EU’s Borrell accuses him of calling for displacement of West Bank Palestinians

Foreign Minister Israel Katz slams EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, after the latter criticized statements made yesterday by the Israeli top diplomat about the IDF’s ongoing counterterror operation in the West Bank.

In those comments yesterday, Katz tweeted that it was “a war in every sense” and that “we need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed.”

In an English-language version of the tweet, Katz said: “We must address this threat by all necessary means, including, in some cases of intense combat, allowing the population to temporarily evacuation [sic] from one neighborhood to another within the refugee camp to prevent civilian harm and to enable the dismantling of terror infrastructures established there.”

Today, attending an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said that “it is still more worrisome the call from the minister for foreign affairs of Israel to displace people from the West Bank, doing more or less the same thing that they did with the people in Gaza. This is completely unacceptable.”

In reaction, Katz tweets: “This is a blatant lie, just like his previous falsehood regarding my statements about Gaza, from which he was forced to retract. I oppose the displacement of any population from their homes.”