EU Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, ALSO said in an interview
"Israel is ridiculing international humanitarian law" - which obliges states to protect the civilians.

"One must continue to put a maximal pressure to stop the operations and secure the access to humanitarian aid. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic.
No more drinking water, no more electricity, hospitals in very bad shape."

"I am indignant when I see that there is little notice of the side damages suffered by one and a half million people who live in a tiny strip of land," he added.

He has also been reported as saying -
"blocking access to people who are suffering and dying is also a breach of humanitarian law."


Of course in stating a refusal to enter into formal discussions with Hamas Michel is echoing the official position that -

'Political contacts with Hamas are banned under the rules of the international Quartet for Middle East peace – which groups the US, the EU, Russia and the UN – on the grounds that the Palestinian faction remains committed to the destruction of Israel.
The international community insists that the ban will only be lifted once the Islamists agree to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

But this policy, set out in 2006 following the Hamas victory in Palestinian elections, has been called into question since the three-week war in Gaza'

Extract from an article in The Independent 19 February 2009

Earlier this month, Former EU commissioner Chris Patten suggested it was time to reassess the isolation of Hamas, saying that approach had failed to weaken it.

'Patten, who found it "easier to get into a maximum security prison in the UK than to enter Gaza", said Israel's relaxation of its blockade had not gone far enough. "It's moved from about minus 10 to about minus eight. It doesn't do anything to help restore economic activity in Gaza.

"It's difficult to understand what preventing exports has to do with security. It has everything to do with the view that Gaza should be collectively punished to discredit Hamas. Unfortunately there are some centuries, if not millennia, of history that show that does not work.

On negotiations with Hamas, Patten referred to his involvement with the Northern Ireland peace process, which "would not have been successfully concluded if we hadn't – with considerable American encouragement – agreed to talk to Sinn Fein/IRA.

"You don't always agree with people you talk to – indeed sometimes you find them despicable – but you need to ease them out of the corners into which they've painted themselves rather than lay on the paint much thicker.

"I think it's wholly reasonable to say we couldn't deal with Hamas unless they agreed to a comprehensive and complete ceasefire.
But do we need to insist on them accepting all past agreements?
Has Israel accepted all past agreements?
If you simply isolate them, do you weaken them?" In fact, he said, "you strengthen people who are even more extreme than they are".

The Guardian Sunday 18 July 2010