Borrell reportedly made the remarks  while he was speaking on Friday at the University of Valladolid in Spain.

“Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” declared EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, according to a report in Spanish daily El Pais.

Borrell reportedly made the remarks  while was speaking on Friday at the University of Valladolid in Spain, where the former Spanish Foreign Minister was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Borrell also said that creating a Palestinian state is necessary in order to solve the ongoing conflict. “The only solution is to create two states that share the land for which they have been dying for 100 years,” he was was quoted as saying. He added that such a solution must be “imposed from the outside.”

The Israeli government strongly pushed back against Borrell’s allegations, reported Politico.

“Mr. Borrell is wrong. Far from seeking to strengthen Hamas, as the EU foreign policy chief alleged, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit Hamas hard in three large-scale military operations; in 2012, 2014, and 2021,” Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s top foreign policy adviser, said in a statement. “After the October 7 massacre of over 1,000 Israelis and over 250 taken hostage, Mr. Netanyahu’s war cabinet directed the Israeli army to destroy Hamas.”

On Monday, EU Foreign Ministers are to meet in Brussels  separetely with Israel’s new Foreign Minister Israel Katz and with the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egyp and Jordsan, as well as with the Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.