Citizens Initiative calling for the full suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement has reached the one million signatures required to trigger a response from the European Commission and the European Parliament.

A civil petition calling for the total suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement for alleged war crimes has reached one million signatures across all 27 member states.

Under EU rules, the European Commission and the European Parliament must now assess the request. This comes as the northern Gaza Strip continues to be hit by occasional Israeli strikes, despite a ceasefire with Hamas that took effect last October.

According to the initiative’s text, the State of Israel is responsible for “an unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians, large-scale displacement of the population, and the systematic destruction of hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza”.

It also cites Israel’s “breach of multiple rules and obligations under international law” and its failure “to prevent the crime of genocide as ordered by the International Court of Justice” as grounds for suspending the agreement. [...]