With so many lives on the line, what did the EU actually get out of its Gaza aid deal with Israel?

Palestinian boys searching for items to salvage in the rubble of buildings destroyed a day earlier by Israeli strikes in Gaza City, 17 July 2025

Amir Tibon writes in Haaretz on 17 July 2025:

Last week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced a deal with the Israeli government to increase the amount of humanitarian aid going into Gaza. Israel promised to allow more trucks packed with food and medicines into the war-torn enclave; in return, the EU decided to sidestep, for the time being, any plans to demote its diplomatic and economic relationship with Israel.

The deal was born out of a threat by the EU to suspend the association agreement with Israel, which guides the bloc’s close cooperation with the country. Citing a clause in the agreement requiring “respect for human rights,” some EU officials have called to reexamine the agreement, based on Israel’s conduct in Gaza – specifically the accusation that Israel is deliberately starving the population of Gaza.

On top of it, many European governments share the concern that the Israeli-American fund distributing aid in southern Gaza, the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” is part of a plan to concentrate a million Gazans in a small area and then push them out to other countries.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza, and the suspicion that Israel’s far-right government was using it to promote an illegal ethnic cleansing plan, led to a near-consensus among the EU member states that it was time to take serious measures against the Netanyahu government.

Eager to avoid such a result, Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, quietly negotiated a deal with Kallas – more humanitarian aid to Gaza, in return for an open-ended delay of any actions related to the association agreement. Kallas celebrated her supposed foreign policy achievement at a press conference last week.

But the deal always had one major flaw, which was easy enough to identify from the moment it was announced. To use simple words, the EU paid in cash, but Israel only made a promise to deliver the goods in the future. Kallas gave Sa’ar the “win” he wanted when the monthly meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers ended without any concrete decisions against Israel. But did the EU, a week into the deal, actually get what it was promised in return?

That’s where things become murky and unclear. First and foremost, the terms of the deal were never made public – only vague, general statements about “more trucks and more border crossings.” The exact numbers were most likely kept secret in order to save Sa’ar and the rest of the government from an embarrassing political situation in Israel, where increasing aid to Gaza is currently an extremely unpopular policy.

But Kallas should have known that this specific government is full of liars, thieves and demagogues, who place no value on their own word, and constantly spout and spread disinformation.  By not publishing the exact terms of the agreement, she made it incredibly easy for the government to slow-walk, dilute and deny its own commitments. That explains her statement this week about “tangible improvements” happening in Gaza, but not yet what her deal with Israel was supposed to bring about.

The fate of the deal’s implementation now depends on how much the EU’s top diplomat will insist, and how the bloc’s important countries will respond, if Sa’ar and other members of the Netanyahu government will sabotage it. It’s not easy for anyone to admit being conned and misled; but with many lives on the line, humility and constant pressure will be needed to make sure the terms of the agreement are respected.

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