EU's Borrell tells Israel: 'One horror doesn’t justify another'
Cohen said Hamas was to blame not only for the Oct. 7 attacks but also for the current plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
MAGEN, Israel, Nov 16 (Reuters) - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Israel on Thursday not to be consumed by rage in its response to last month's Hamas attack, declaring that "one horror does not justify another" as Israeli forces wage war in Gaza.
On his first visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 assault, Borrell sought to express solidarity with his hosts and reflect international concern about Palestinian civilian casualties as Israeli forces seek to destroy Hamas in Gaza.
Borrell's balancing act also reflected an attempt to stick to a middle ground acceptable to all 27 EU countries, who have deeply rooted differences about the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have come to the fore in the current crisis.
The scale of Borrell's task was highlighted by the foreign ministers of three EU countries - Ireland, Greece and Cyprus - all paying their own separate visits to Israel on Thursday, in addition to his own, all with their own talking points.
After visiting the devastated Kibbutz Be'eri - a major target of the Oct. 7 assault - with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Borrell drew on his own experience of living and working in a kibbutz in the 1960s.
"I know what a kibbutz means for the Israelis," he said, after walking among destroyed homes and a kindergarten in the settlement near the border with Gaza, wearing a flak jacket with the European Union flag of yellow stars on a blue backdrop.
After the kindergarten visit, Borrell carried a small red Lego brick in one hand.
Hamas killed some 130 residents of the kibbutz and kidnapped others, according to Israeli officials.
"I understand what the family of the Kibbutzims feel when their sons, or their fathers or daughters are kidnapped," said Borrell, a veteran Spanish Socialist politician.
But he also called upon Israel to heed international calls to do more to help and protect civilians in Gaza .
"I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage," he said.
"Not far from here is Gaza. One horror does not justify another," he said.
Israel insists it is working hard to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza but has no choice but to fight in civilian areas as that is where Hamas operates.
Cohen said Hamas was to blame not only for the Oct. 7 attacks but also for the current plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
"There is only one responsible for this atrocity, for the massacre of the seventh of October, for the world that started after and also the suffering of the people in Gaza - it's Hamas, which is sponsored by Iran," he said.
Borrell also met with relatives of people taken hostage by Hamas. They made emotional pleas for the EU to help secure the release of their loved ones.
Borrell pledged to raise the issue in a meeting this weekend with the Emir of Qatar, whose country has been heavily involved in trying to reach a deal to free at least some of the hostages.
