ad

The debate over Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election as president of the European Commission has heated up across European capitals — and Rome in particular.

As things stand, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — who is also the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR) — remains undecided over whether to give von der Leyen her backing.

The commission chief held a 50-minute meeting with the ECR parliamentary group on Tuesday morning, at which Meloni’s Brothers of Italy reportedly requested a radical change in the EU’s approach to the Green Deal.

No official statement was issued at the end of the meeting, meaning that for now, the ECR’s stance on von der Leyen’s reelection is not clear.

According to Gaetano Quagliariello, Head of the School of Government at the Luiss University in Rome, von der Leyen needs the support of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party if she is to continue in post.

“I think Italy’s PM is able to influence at least part of the ECR,” Quagliariello said — adding that given Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Spanish party Vox have left the group, Meloni will find it easier to convince those who remain should she decide to give von der Leyen her support.

Meloni seeks top commissioner job for Italy

As far as Meloni is concerned, a key bone of contention in the ongoing negotiations is the appointment of an Italian commissioner to a sufficiently prominent role.

Speaking at the recent NATO summit in Washington, Meloni — who in June abstained from the vote to back von der Leyen’s reelection — stated that she wants Italy’s prominence in the EU to be recognised and that she intends to secure a top spot for Rome in the EU Commission.

Should Meloni and the ECR decline to back von der Leyen, the implications could be serious.

According to Antonio Parenti, the European Commission representative in Italy, given the difficult times that lie ahead, the vote must ensure Europe doesn’t plunge into a political crisis.

“Both Italy and other EU countries have to ensure this vote allows EU institutions to be fully operational,” Parenti said. “Let’s not forget that the historic moment we face is very volatile.”

“We have a war on our doorstep, and even what happened in the US a few days ago makes us understand we are not going through an easy time.”

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hospital officials say an Israeli airstrike killed 17 Palestinians on Tuesday in a military-declared “safe zone” outside the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Officials at Nasser Hospital said the strike hit near a gas station in Muwasi, an area packed with tent camps housing thousands of Palestinians who have fled Israeli offensives in other parts of Gaza. The site lies in a humanitarian “safe zone” where the Israeli military has told evacuating Palestinians to take refuge.

The strike raises to at least 59 the number of people killed in southern and central Gaza by strikes overnight into Tuesday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed more than 30 people as Israel and Hamas continued to weigh the latest cease-fire proposal.

In central Gaza, strikes overnight into Tuesday killed 24 people. The deaths in Nuseirat and Zawaida included 10 women and four children.

Hamas has said cease-fire talks meant to wind down the nine-month-long war would continue even after Israel targeted the militant group’s top military commander, Mohammed Deif, whose fate remained unclear. Israel says another senior Hamas militant was killed in that strike that local health officials said killed 90 Palestinians, including children.

International mediators are working to push Israel and Hamas toward a deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.

The strikes late Monday and early Tuesday hit four homes, according to emergency workers. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies, some wrapped in blankets and a floral sheet, as they were ferried to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Clouds of smoke from Israeli strikes rose above the city.

The military said it “conducted targeted raids on terror targets” in central Gaza, without elaborating. It did not immediately provide details on the targets.

In southern Gaza, nine people were killed in two separate strikes overnight Monday, according to medical officials and AP journalists. Four were killed in a blast that struck a house in eastern Khan Younis and five were killed in a strike on a street in southernmost Rafah, according to ambulance workers who transported the bodies to Nasser Hospital.

An AP journalist counted the bodies at the hospital before a funeral was held at its gates.

The military said air force planes struck some 40 targets in Gaza over the past day, among them observation posts, Hamas military structures and explosives-rigged buildings.

The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

Violence has also surged in the West Bank. On Tuesday a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli policeman, wounding him lightly, before another officer opened fire, killing the assailant who was identified as a 19-year-old from Gaza.

___

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war