EC Midday press briefing of 24/07/2026

24 juillet 2026

European Commission Commission européenne

00:01 - 01:47
Intervenant 2
Yes, thanks.  Musa Balotat, Assistance.  I have two questions related to Gaza, which have, I think, angles of foreign affairs and diplomacy.  First, I would ask for an update of the meetings two weeks ago, the Foreign Affairs Council and the Palestine Donor Group, which announced that they wanted to finance and start early recovery projects relating to water security and waste management disposal in Gaza.  And it was not clear whether there was already an agreement or just an understanding with Israel. 

So have these projects already started, or are there any discussions going on with Israeli authorities to enable them to start soon?  Another question relates to the evacuation or exits of people from Gaza who need to come to Europe, to EU member states.  And there we know that EU has this EUBAM mission at the Rafah border crossing and has helped to evacuate patients.  But what about students who have received scholarships in EU member states?  They seem to have problems. 

We wrote an article about that, about a medical student in Gaza who has received, been granted a scholarship at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, but cannot receive any visa or apply for a visa, and also there is no evacuation of students obviously from Gaza.  Is this something which EU could help with or coordinate, because I would think that it would be in line with its policy to enable, let's say, such exits from Gaza of patients and students?  Thank you. 
01:47 - 02:10
Intervenant 1
Okay, Musa, your first question relates to two projects that indeed had been brought up notably and most recently when Commissioner Switzas did visit to the region.  So we'll see with Guillaume if he has any update on that, and then on the second question, Anwar. 

La suite de la transcription est réservée aux clients Pro

Débloquez la transcription complète, le chat et toutes les fonctionnalités d'analyse avec Polyfact Pro.