After keeping silent for more than a day, the European Union finally released a statement Tuesday night expressing "deep concern" over the escalation in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory and called on the Israeli-occupation regime to respect its obligations under international agreements.

"The European Union is deeply concerned about the grave escalation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory" said EU High Representative Josep Borrell in a statement.

He noted that in Jenin, an Israeli military operation, "involving the largest-scale airstrikes on the city in decades, has left at least ten Palestinians dead and dozens injured".

"As expressed in previous statements, the EU equally condemns attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. All these events are a reminder of the fragility of the situation on the ground, in the absence of prospects for a political solution," he said.

Borrell said the EU has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the increasingly high number of casualties of the violence this year.

"The EU continues to stress that civilians, especially children, must be protected under all circumstances and that the use of force must be proportionate and only a means of last resort, when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life, in line with international humanitarian law," he said.

"We call on Israel to respect its obligations under international agreements, and we call on the Palestinian Authority to continue security coordination with Israel," said the EU statement.

The EU called to strengthen the Palestinian Authority so that it can re-establish security control of all of Area A of the occupied Palestinian territory in accordance with the agreements in place.

The 27-member bloc urged all parties to de-escalate the situation and to end the vicious cycle of violence.

"Sustainable security can only be achieved through a political solution to the conflict, which allows Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace, dignity, and prosperity," stressed Borrell.

It is crucial that both parties engage meaningfully and in good faith to reopen a political horizon towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict, he said.

Source: Kuwait News Agency