(Adnkronos) – Members of Italy’s Carabinieri paramilitary force will “soon” be sent to the Rafah border checkpoint between the Palestinian Gaza Strip enclave and Egypt, foreign minister Antonio Tajani stated on Monday.
“The military mission that will soon go to check Rafah will leave from Vicenza aboard a military flight,” Tajani said on the sidelines of European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
Italian, Spanish and French nationals will re-staff the EU border assistance mission (Eubam), which was halted when the war in Gaza broke out (in October 2023), Tajani said.
“Now, with the ceasefire (that began last week between Israel and Gaza-ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas), the mission should start up again,” said Tajani.
Eubam “is not a very large mission”, Tajani noted.
“But it is significant that Europe is going to the Rafah crossing, where the Palestinians will also operate,” he said.
“Involving the Palestinian Authority in the future of Palestine is the best thing to do”, Tajani underlined.
The first six-week phase of the US-brokered truce began on 19 January and followed 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The ceasefire deal allows for thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to Gaza City and includes the freeing of 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel and a surge of humanitarian aid into the war-devastated, blockaded coastal enclave.
