Today I attended the International Humanitarian Conference for Gaza
organised by President Macron in Paris.
The debate was lively, but in a way we all agreed on the following.
There is no doubt that the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians
on October 7 must be condemned in the strongest terms
and all hostages must be freed immediately and unconditionally.
Yet, to quote the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Guterres.
Today in Gaza we are witnessing not only a humanitarian crisis, but a
crisis of humanity.
The bombing of civilian targets that we are witnessing today is,
unfortunately, totally disproportionate to the right of
defence, which is not denied to Israel by anyone in the international
community. Calls for Israel to respect international law, and
in particular international humanitarian law, have unfortunately
so far been unsuccessful.
And from all the testimonies on the ground, from both aid workers
and UN workers, only one thing is clear.
We cannot talk about the delivery of humanitarian aid unless there is an
immediate humanitarian cessation of hostilities.
A ceasefire is necessary in order to be able to talk about
being able to effectively help civilians on the ground.
Today we were unanimous that humanitarian aid must reach the
population immediately.
Slovenia has already made many contributions in this area.
And just yesterday, the government approved an extra million, doubling
our contribution to help Palestine.
Yet we all know that there is one and only one final goal.
And that is a lasting and just peace in the region.
The only way to peace is through a two-state solution.
In its foreign policy efforts and in its work at the United Nations,
Slovenia will strive to achieve precisely this goal - peace.