BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union will restart a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.
Kallas said there was broad agreement that the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) could play “a decisive role in supporting the ceasefire.”
“Today, EU Foreign Ministers agreed to redeploy it to the Rafah Crossing Point between Gaza and Egypt. This will allow a number of injured individuals to leave Gaza and receive medical care,” she added.
A civilian EU mission to help monitor the Rafah crossing was agreed to in 2005 but suspended in June 2007 as a result of Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip.
In its standby mode, the mission has 10 international and eight local staff.
Italy’s foreign and defence ministries said on Monday that Rome will send seven Carabinieri officers to join the Rafah mission in addition to two Italians already there.
The mission’s primary objective “is to coordinate and facilitate the daily transit of up to 300 injured and ill individuals, ensuring assistance and protection for vulnerable people in a humanitarian emergency context,” the Italian ministries said.
“Italy will also be responsible for transporting the entire contingent of the European Gendarmerie Force to the theatre of operations,” they said, adding that Spanish Guardia Civil officers and French gendarmes will join the international force.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Andrew Gray in Brussels and Angelo Amante in Rome; Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Andrea Ricci and Matthew Lewis)
