Overview

• Teresa Ribera told students at Sciences Po in Paris that "the genocide in Gaza" exposes Europe's failure to act or speak with one voice, becoming the first sitting Commission member to use the term.
• Israel's foreign ministry condemned her remarks as baseless and called her a "mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda," reiterating its rejection of genocide allegations.
• Ribera is the European Commission's executive vice president for climate and competition, not the EU's foreign policy lead, and last month said the situation "looks very much" like genocide.
• The Commission has cited human-rights violations in Gaza but stopped short of a genocide determination, and most EU governments have avoided the label.
• Her comments come as South Africa pursues a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, genocide scholars approved a resolution saying legal criteria are met, and Gaza authorities report more than 62,000 deaths since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,200 in Israel.