Beyza Binnur Dönmez
20 October 2025•Update: 20 October 2025
GENEVA
Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for equality, preparedness, and crisis management, on Monday urged Israel to open all border crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gazans in need amid the "fragile" ceasefire.
Speaking at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, Lahbib said aid must urgently reach Gaza "at scale" and called the current NGO registration process "a major obstacle" to delivering assistance.
"We have seen in these recent days how the ceasefire is fragile. Humanitarian aid is again taken hostage," she said. "We need to have a full access for humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people."
She urged Israeli authorities to allow international humanitarian organizations to re-enter Gaza, noting that as winter approaches, "hundreds of thousands of people live among the rubble without houses and without blankets, without everything."
"All the crossing points must be open," she said, and added that while the number of aid trucks entering Gaza has increased, it remains "far from the 600 trucks that was promised."
Lahbib said the European Commission has decided to scale up its contribution by €50 million (over $58 million) to support humanitarian operations, and reiterated the need for diplomacy to replace violence.
"We are ready to help them. We must silence the guns and choose diplomacy over debt," she concluded.
