EU’s top diplomat makes explosive claim

Josep Borrell accuses Israel of funding Hamas

The EU’s High Representative for Forreign Affairs Josep Borrell openly accused Israel, in a speach, of having financed the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“Hamas was financed by the Israeli government in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” Borrell was quoted by Spanish newspaper El Pais as the diplomat was speaking at Spain’s University of Valladolid, where the Spanish politician was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Borrell also insisted that creating a Palestinian state is necessary in order to solve the ongoing conflict.

“The only solution is to create two states that share the land for which they have been dying for 100 years,” Borrell was quoted as saying. He added that such a solution must be “imposed from the outside.”

The Israeli government denied the accusations.

“Mr. Borrell is wrong. Far from seeking to strengthen Hamas, as the EU foreign policy chief alleged, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit Hamas hard in three large-scale military operations; in 2012, 2014, and 2021,” Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s top foreign policy adviser, said in a statement. “After the October 7 massacre of over 1,000 Israelis and over 250 taken hostage, Mr. Netanyahu’s war cabinet directed the Israeli army to destroy Hamas.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied such allegations in the past.