Euro-Med Monitor condemns Israel’s systematic destruction of projects, infrastructure, and housing units built with full or partial funding from the European Commission and EU member states, whether through Palestinian civil society organisations or UN agencies, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), during Israel’s two-year genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s systematic destruction targets not only physical assets but also vital systems that ensure basic rights to water, health, education, and adequate housing. Such targeting constitutes a flagrant violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.
Initial damage documented by the Euro-Med Monitor team includes water desalination facilities, hospitals, clinics, health centres, schools, and housing units constructed under EU-funded reconstruction programmes.
The disruption of desalination facilities and water and sanitation networks directly violates individuals’ right to safe water and sanitation. The destruction of schools deprives children of their right to education. Meanwhile, the demolition of homes has left thousands of families homeless and forcibly displaced.
The most notable examples include severe damage to a desalination facility in the northern Gaza Strip, built with European Union funding through UNICEF’s water programmes, and another facility in Deir al-Balah, established under the EU’s Water Programme for the Palestinian Territories (Union for the Mediterranean initiative) and implemented by UNICEF.
UN reports indicate that the vast majority of schools in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or rendered inoperative, including UNRWA schools, which receive substantial funding from the European Union and are among the most severely affected facilities.
The EU has long funded Gaza’s water and sanitation sectors, including the central desalination programme, short-term low-volume (STLV) units, and connection and distribution works. Subsequent assessments show that water and sanitation assets, such as coastal wells, transmission lines, reservoirs, and pumping stations, have sustained extensive damage, directly affecting EU-funded projects in this vital sector.
These deliberate attacks cause immense human suffering and constitute direct targeting of civilian infrastructure protected under the Geneva Conventions and the principles of international and humanitarian law.
The EU’s reluctance to take decisive action to stop Israel’s two-year genocide in the Gaza Strip, coupled with its reliance on rhetorical measures, has emboldened Israel to intensify practices that erode any basis for peace and justice. This occurs as Europe remains Israel’s main trading partner and key supplier of weapons, while also serving as the primary market for Israeli arms exports.
Through their actions and inaction, European governments continue to provide political and legal cover for Israel’s violations, despite official assessments, reports, and public statements by European officials acknowledging serious and systematic breaches of international humanitarian law, some amounting to genocide.
The EU’s continued silence on Israel’s policies reflects a disregard for the legal, political, and moral obligations it has long affirmed in its official statements. Under Article 2 of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, respect for human rights is a fundamental condition of bilateral relations.
Although internal European reviews have repeatedly found strong and clear evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israel, neither the European Commission, the Council, nor the Parliament has activated any available corrective mechanisms, such as suspending trade privileges, freezing cooperation frameworks, or triggering the dispute resolution mechanism. Maintaining relations in this manner effectively enables Israeli violations and constitutes a clear breach of the legal and moral obligations set out in the EU’s own contractual framework.
This European failure to use available pressure tools sends a dangerous message: the destruction of European-funded assets and the terrorising of civilians can continue without political or legal consequence. It undermines the EU’s credibility and weakens its claim to uphold a rules-based international order.
Israel must be required to provide full financial compensation for every European-funded project destroyed or damaged, including replacement and temporary operating costs. An official European investigation should be launched, with a detailed public report published on the losses of EU-funded assets in Gaza and the identification of those responsible. Euro-Med Monitor also calls for the prosecution of civilian and military officials involved in issuing or executing such orders before the competent authorities, and for full support of relevant international legal proceedings.
Compensation in this context is not merely a financial assessment of losses; it signifies acknowledgement of responsibility for internationally unlawful acts and a crucial step toward restoring Palestinians’ access to essential services crippled by repeated bombing, bulldozing, and targeting.
The EU must compel Israel to provide full and immediate compensation for all damage to projects and infrastructure financed by European public funds, whether directly through the Commission and member states or indirectly through UNRWA, UN agencies, and partner organisations.
Furthermore, the EU must move immediately from moral condemnation to concrete action by activating available enforcement tools, foremost among them suspending the partnership agreement with Israel and supporting international and European investigations to ensure the prosecution of those responsible for targeting protected civilian property and obstructing humanitarian aid.
Euro-Med Monitor stresses the need to maintain investment in Palestinian development and avoid punishing the population by cutting relief and service programmes under the pretext of potential destruction, as this effectively punishes victims twice. Efforts should instead focus on holding the aggressor accountable through comprehensive economic, political, and legal pressure, rather than reducing support for essential civilian infrastructure.
Urgent funding is needed for early recovery and rehabilitation programmes in key sectors, particularly water, health, education, and housing, with priority given to projects that ensure service sustainability and the protection of related facilities.
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