By IRNA,
Berlin : European Union foreign ministers, meeting on the Gaza conflict in Paris Tuesday evening, decided to send a high- ranking EU delegation to visit Israel next week, spokeswoman of the EU Commission in Brussels said on Wednesday.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg whose country is to assume the rotating presidency on January 1, mentioned Sunday as the date for the EU officials’ trip to Israel.
The visit of the EU representatives to Israel is expected to end before January 8, it was said in Brussels.
The EU has stepped up efforts to put political pressure on the illegal Jewish state to halt its military onslaught on Gaza and to agree to short-term truce.
Facing mounting international criticism over its air attacks on Gaza, Israel has refused to stop the air strikes which have killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, mostly civilians, during five days of intense bombing.
The EU had lambasted the Israeli air raids on Gaza as
“unacceptable.”
“The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis as well as complicate the search for a peaceful solution,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement last weekend.
Solana’s remarks came hours after the French government condemned the Israeli air attacks as “disproportionate.”
The Israeli bombardment must stop immediately, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said in Paris.