Dutch Minister says EU deal with Israel is allowing aid into Gaza; Egypt says no
Caretaker Minister Caspar Veldkamp of Foreign Affairs says that a European Union agreement with Israel has resulted in 180 trucks with emergency aid entering Gaza on Monday. Egypt said on Monday that Israel’s agreement with the EU had not yet resulted in any additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the enclave besieged by Israel, NOS reports.
Veldkamp and several senior EU officials have said that an agreement with Israel has already resulted in more trucks with food for Gaza. But the caretaker Dutch Minister is the first to put a number to the claim, though it is unclear what he bases the figure on. “I see that 180 trucks went yesterday and 160 the day before,” Veldkamp told journalists in Brussels this morning.
He stressed that these trucks are far from enough to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel’s continued attacks and clampdown on emergency aid. “But I now see that, by acting jointly as the EU, we have achieved some movement in Israel’s position,” Veldkamp said.
NOS has asked the UN for confirmation of whether more emergency aid is actually entering the Gaza Strip, but has not yet received a response.
Aid to Gaza largely goes through Egypt. “Nothing has changed on the ground yet,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Monday, contradicting the narrative from Brussels.
Israel’s actions in Gaza violate the trade agreement between the EU and Israel, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas recently concluded in a report. Today, the EU Foreign Ministers will decide whether the European Union will act against Israel.
According to NOS, a group of lawyers will file a lawsuit against the European Commission and Kallas at the European Court of Justice on Thursday. They accuse Brussels of failing by not acting against the crimes committed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu on suspicion of war crimes in Gaza, including targeted attacks on civilians and using starvation as a war strategy. Israel denies these accusations, and the EU has largely been conducting business as usual with the country.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas committed a terrorist attack on Israel, killing at least 1,139 people. Israel responded with massive bombings on the Gaza Strip and, except for a brief ceasefire early this year that Israel broke on March 18, has continued ever since.
As of 13 July 2025, Israel has killed at least 58,026 people in the Gaza Strip, including 17,400 children, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. At least 138,520 people are injured.
