TEL AVIV: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday that Israel has a duty to defend its citizens and that Europe stands by its side in its battle with Hamas.
"This is the most heinous assault against Jews since the Holocaust," the president of the European Commission told the Israeli leader in Tel Aviv after visiting the site of a Hamas attack.
"We thought this could never happen again, yet it did. In the face of this unspeakable tragedy, there is only one possible response: Europe stands with Israel."
Von der Leyen visited Israel six days after Hamas gunmen burst through the heavily militarised border around the Gaza Strip and killed more than 1,300 people, mainly civilians.
Israel has responded with an intense bombing campaign against Palestinian targets in Gaza, killing in turn nearly 1,800 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.
EU ‘unequivocally’ condemns Hamas attacks
This has triggered calls from some in the international community for Israel to show restraint and to allow humanitarian corridors to be opened for Palestinian civilians.
But von der Leyen, speaking after she and European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola toured the scene of many of the killings at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, blamed Hamas alone for the crisis.
"Hamas' despicable actions are the hallmark of terrorists. And I know that how Israel responds will show that it is a democracy," von der Leyen declared.
"What I saw and what I heard is breaking my heart. The blood of people killed in their sleep. The stories of innocents burned alive or slaughtered in their homes," she said.
"The parents hiding their newborn babies before confronting the terrorists. Children and elderly people ripped from their families and taken hostage," she said.
"They aim to eradicate Jewish life from the land, and they took action."
According to her office's account of the meeting, von der Leyen promised that Europe would work more closely with Israel, Egypt and Jordan for "a peaceful and integrated Middle East".
But she warned that the allies would have to be vigilant against "those who stand to gain from a perpetuating conflict in the Middle East, like Iran and Russia".
Turning to her own continent, the head of the EU's Brussels executive warned that "anti-Semitic incidents are again on the rise", and promised to foster Jewish life in Europe.
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