It is important to make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people who should be provided with aid, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said on Monday.

“Hamas is one thing, and civilian victims are quite another, one thing is the destruction of a terrorist organisation, and another thing are civilians,” said Grlic-Radman, who arrived in Brussels for a meeting of EU foreign ministers. The main topics of the meeting are the Middle East and long-term aid to Ukraine.

Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz , Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Abul Gheit , Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt Sameh Shukrin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Ayman Safadi and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestinian Authority Riyadh al-Maliki were invited to the meeting in Brussels.

Grlic-Radman said that at the request of the Israeli side, he will meet bilaterally with their foreign minister.

“The meeting was requested by them. We want to condemn Hamas, we demand the unconditional release of detained civilians. We will discuss how to contain the Middle East crisis so that it does not spill over into the region”, Grlic-Radman said before the bilateral meeting with his Israeli counterpart.

He stressed that all the ministers expressed concern and pointed out that any escalation takes the region away from the establishment of peace.

“We need to find a solution to restore peace and reduce the suffering of civilians in Gaza. Everyone condemns the attack by Hamas and recognizes Israel’s right to self-defence, but within the framework of humanitarian law, they also express concern about collateral civilian casualties,” said the Croatian minister.

Palestinian Foreign Minister al-Maliki told reporters that they had not heard any new ideas from the European side on how to establish peace .

“They talk among themselves and exchange opinions and ideas, but they don’t give us any point of view. Our demands are clear, we need an immediate end to the war against the Palestinian people, we need help to Gaza, we need an end to Israeli aggression and the exodus of Palestinians,” al-Maliki said.

“There is still no call from the European side for a ceasefire, but what can I do: turn my back and leave or try to change their minds. We need a cease-fire because every day without it brings a thousand civilian casualties and therefore I expect the EU to call for a cease-fire,” al-Maliki said.

He stressed that the Palestinian side is ready to work on the peace process and the creation of a Palestinian state.

“Israel has cut off the possibility of establishing peace many times. All initiatives come from the Arab side, and Israel wants to expand the conflict to the region,” added the Palestinian minister.

The Israeli minister said before the start of the meeting that he was coming to Brussels with two goals – to get support for the release of the remaining hostages and for the destruction of Hamas.